Do not tolerate me as a fly in your ointment to be casually swatted away, nor accept me as an affliction to endure until the medication saves your bacon.
Such courtesies belittle. They are veiled but polite denials of my place.
Recognize me. Stand away from what is mine, as I stand firm upon my ground and see your stand oo.
You need not yield your place, only cease to occupy mine.
We both belong, each in our rightful space.
I affirm your right to be. You will affirm mine too.
Not tolerance. Not acceptance but unqualified recognition and an embrace of the facts.
Only then shall our shadows rise together: upright, equal and unbent before the sun.
Should recognition fail, still we remain undiminished.
Yet without it, respect itself wanes, and coexistence loses its grace.
