Well, some will tell me that my song Changing the Angle is too candid, too naïve, and they are right when they point out the case of people who become aggressors, driven by an uncontrollable tendency to lash out at others, linked to mental health issues, polydrug addiction, or unmanaged personality disorders, making them resemble hedgehogs or cacti: touch them, and you get hurt. Well, I admit it. So practicing avoidance remains my only way to survive. I have nothing to gain by confronting an aggressor head-on, except when stopping the act becomes unavoidable. Yet I still find a small way, a certain manner to reach an antisocial person: when I greet a group of people that includes them, I make the effort to greet the whole group cordially, to be kind without distinction, so that this person, too, receives their share of kindness through my consideration for the others present. It is not a glorious way of getting by, but it is my way of living peacefully within, granting each one the measure of humanity they can have access to. A person may show many aspects that repel me, but I try to remember that they are still a person, entitled to the same treatment, the same respect, that we owe to every human being. That person must be respected nonetheless. Otherwise, we ourselves become like those who try to tear down anyone who does not meet their expectations. Among our neighbors to the South, some manipulate the fragile, turning the harmful person into a symbol, comparing them to a dog, a rat, or a pest. And then people shoot, they kill, assimilating a human life to a mere parasite, as if murder were nothing more than pest control. But a person is still a person, even if they recruit for an oligarch seeking to break democracy. I do not share your opinion, but I respect that you are the father of two children, someone’s husband, a brother, a son, a friend to others. I respect you as a person, and I try to remind myself, throughout my life, that you are a person. Every human being has the right to live, to eat, to have shelter, to earn a living. A person is a person. Always. That is why we must always find solutions that remain compatible with human rights, with civil law, and with criminal law.
