Same as everyone.
I'm a white guy. All my ancestors escaped some of the worst shit Europe and the British Isles had to deliver. My last ancestor to the U.S.A. was a mail order bride to Salt Lake City but she didn't like sharing a husband so she escaped that shit too.
My ancestors were all here in America before the U.S. Civil War, but they all managed to be where The U.S.A. Civil War wasn't. I was curious about this as a child but none of my great grandmothers or grandparents would talk about it. Apparently out in the Wild West of the U.S.A. my ancestors ignored the Civil War or quickly removed themselves to places where they could ignore it. About half of them were pacifists, religious dissidents of various sorts. One of my grandfathers was a conscientious objector in World War II, but his compromise was to build and repair Liberty and Victory ships for the Merchant Marine.
My wife's family history is more extreme. Her ancestors, many of them indigenous Americans and other ethnicities deemed undesirables in the U.S.A., were forced into Mexico and Canada by the U.S.A. Army. They returned later as "immigrants" in the first half of the twentieth century. My father-in-law was born in a tent in a farm worker camp near a small farm my parents used to own. His parents were considered Mexican, even though his ancestors were native to what is now the U.S.A. Southwest. My wife's other grandfather was Canadian in World War II for similar reasons. The U.S.A. Army refused him, the Royal Air Force did not.
My wife has far deeper ancestral roots in North America than I do, and they all survived worse shit than any of my white ass U.S.A. immigrant ancestors did, even my ancestors who denied any Catholic or Irish heritage because they could pass. None of my wife's grandparents got that pass.
The family tree of life on earth goes back to the beginning of life on earth. We are ALL among the survivors.
But there is nothing special about humans. This planet has seen many innovative species come and go. The branches of our line may be lopped off in a few generations, or the entire branch of humanity may be lopped off very soon, Homo sapiens extinct by their own agency.
I hope I never have to decide which neighbors I will protect or seek protection from, and which neighbors I'll have to eat.
Soylent Green is people.
Some people have found comfort in their study of various philosophies and religions, I've found mine in my study of Evolutionary Biology.
Life goes on. What will earth be in 100,000 years, a million years, a billion years...???
If anyone believes in Gods or Heavens or Reincarnation, or Endless Cycles, the only thing of any importance in all those places are the stories we live by.
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