The recent case of Andrew Anthos, a 72-year-old man who was beaten to death outside of his apartment in Detroit by homophobes, is a sad reminder of how far society has to go on the road toward acceptance.
Almost a decade after the Matthew Shepard trial, and the resulting attempts at hate-crime legislation, we are still grappling with how to make people understand that an impersonal hatred based on sexual orientation is wrong.
This struggle parallels our struggle for more than five centuries to show that an impersonal hatred based on the color of someone's skin is wrong or for more than a millennia to show that regarding someone of an opposite gender as inferior is also wrong.
For all the progress we make, it seems like there is always another fight to be fought on the road to peace.
The irony in such an attitude is that it hurts much more than the victims; it hurts society as a whole. For a brief example, let's take Alan Turing. Turing was a British mathematician and cryptographer who served breaking Nazi code during World War II and established the basis of computer science.
His contributions have permeated the field to this day, and they were all made before the age of 42. A year before his death, he was convicted of "gross indecency" for admitting to a relationship with another man, and the subsequent "hormone therapy" and social stigma depressed him to the point of suicide.
One can only wonder what other great contributions this man who had given so much for his country and world could have made had he simply been left in peace.
We're all familiar with the basic arguments of tolerance. Compassion, charity and good will are emphasized in all of the major religions of the world (despite evidence to the contrary). This is all neatly wrapped into the so-called Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
This teaching seems so simple, so basic, that it should not be a problem to implement - and yet every day we hear of mindless, senseless acts that directly violate it. Turns out that loving your neighbor as you love yourself is really hard because your neighbor isn't you and doesn't do the things you do.
That obviously makes him a jerk, so your only recourse is to stab him in the face until he agrees with you or dies, whichever comes first. As ridiculous as that sounds, that is what people generally do.
However, violation of the Golden Rule hurts the violator as well. Beyond theories of divine retribution and karma, failing to value others gives others no incentive to value you. It hampers your ability to connect with others, thereby limiting your options and inhibiting your growth.
In seeking to destroy another's happiness, you create the unhappiness that in turn destroys you. It happens to people everyday in less extreme proportions. We cut someone off in traffic and then become enraged when someone else cuts us off.
We ignore the advice of the people we care about and then wonder why our advice is ignored.
We view others in the terms of cookie-cutter stereotypes and then are viewed in such terms ourselves.
It's a simple concept, really. You want respect, respect others. You want to be loved, love others. You want power, empower those around you, and watch them elevate you.
Treat others as they would wish to be treated, and you will find others treating you as you wish to be treated. Respecting the value of yourself and others and living the golden rule to the best of your abilities is the third step to finding the meaning of life.
Nick Vaidyanathan is a computer science senior and can be reached at: nicholas.vaidyanathan@asu.edu.
