Why I Don't Kill Bugs...

By: Lanisha Porter
The act of killing a bug makes a very obvious statement within itself: my life is more important than yours. In a way this suggests that humans have a superiority complex when compared to the life of a bug; almost like an existential narcissism. I believe that if God in all his wisdom created the heavens and the earth, everything in-between from the human to even the smallest bug itself should be respected in its existence.

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Once while I was chilling outside, a spider crawled onto my tennis shoe and was making its way up my pants leg. Instead of killing it, I simply kicked it off and it was flung into the grass. I reasoned that there was no reason to kill it when we could have easily co-existed in the same space with respected boundaries. Of course self-preservation is an inclination all men have, but when it's possible to peacefully co-exist, why kill? While I am not a person who is necessarily pro-bugs, I am, indeed, a person who houses the common courtesies all life should be due. It's a scary thought to imagine but if humans can't have respect for something as microscopic as a bug, how can we genuinely respect the greater things among us such as each other? If we can label other lives as being inferior, then surely we can have superiority reservations about the color of skin, socioeconomic status, gender roles, sexual orientations and much more. Funny how our ability or inability to cherish small things translates into our attitudes to value the bigger things. Understand why I don't kill bugs now?