Rescuing Our Society From Hatred

We live in a time when the Golden Rule has been badly tarnished, when respect for each other—whether as groups or individuals—is dangerously absent, and when the ancient beasts of hatred, racism, sexual abuse and patriarchy have been unleashed again throughout the U.S.landscape. The thrust of this article is to sidestep the common pitfalls of stereotyping groups, nations and individuals by guiding readers through the treacherous swamp populated by the ‘beasts’ mentioned above and offer two sources for counteracting today's downward trend.

Just as I began to write what follows, a banner flashed across my computer screen – announcing that a State Senator in Georgia told a TV commentator that using the ‘N’ word is wrong, but if our current President used it earlier, that’s no reason to “berate him” now. That’s the kind of culture we live in these days, when ‘up’ can be called ‘down’ and cultural and political norms are thrown away in deference to whatever seems to work.

We now inhabit a country in which a significant portion of the populace is okay with neo-Nazis and Alt-right groups picturing members of the white race as victims, and are saddled with a government that separates children from parents (in some cases indefinitely it seems), even though many of them have come to the U.S. seeking asylum, due of death threats and others kinds of severe abuse in their home countries. But instead of welcoming the “tired and poor,” we brand them as criminals and swallow the falsehood that “others” are threatening our way of life and want to take over this country, wresting it from its rightful ‘owners’ – whites from northern Europe. The fact that over six hundred Native tribes inhabited this place long before our ancestors came here* from other countries seeking asylum is thrown aside, using the false cover story that whites have a God-given “manifest destiny” to rule and occupy this land to their benefit at the expense of other people.

Recently I read Jon Meacham’s book The Soul of America, hoping to find that all is not lost. The thrust of his book is that the United States of America has been through many other tough periods in our history, and that our “better angels’ (to quote Abraham Lincoln) have always prevailed. Toward the end of his book, Meacham offers some suggestions as to what all of us can do to return to a foundation of respect and civility in this country. But I found that portion of his book inadequate.

Something more specific and basic needs to happen, if we are ever to ‘right the ship of state’ in the U.S. It has been obvious to me for a long time that we must return to the foundational principles on which this country was founded – “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” and the notion that “all men (sic) are created equal.”

But until yesterday, August 16^thof 2018, I couldn’t find the proper framework or motivation to address that task. But then my wife and I went to a local theater and saw the documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” It presents the career and philosophy of Fred Rogers, the TV host and Presbyterian minister – how he came to work with children and why his approach is the only sane method that really works in the long run. To tell people that they are special, that they are like no one else in the world, that they and their feelings matter, and that someone truly cares about them is what our world desperately needs right now.

During the film, a counter argument is made that such an approach is “Pollyannaish” and naïve. Yet one of the major TV networks last Sunday evening aired an hour-long documentary about a former neo-Nazi who left that group and now works to evacuate others from the same blind philosophy. The focus of the documentary was a young man who is currently trying to leave the neo-Nazi movement, but has had a lapse in behavior, so the person helping him arranges for this young man to meet and talk with the mother of Heather Heyer, the woman who was murdered by the driver of a car in Charlottesville a year ago.

In both the “Neighbor” film and this TV documentary we see the transforming power of love and caring and acceptance. I’d recommend that anyone reading this article see the film “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” and, if possible, view the MSNBC documentary aired on August 12^th. Each of those productions offers a hearty dose of what is needed in our society today, along with the courage to pursue that same approach in our everyday lives. If we each act with love and compassion to affirm everyone we meet, this country and our world can truly become more whole and peaceful again. There’s not a moment to lose, if we want to become our better selves and a better world.

• For further information about American tribes in situ, go to Aaron Carapella’s website: www.tribalnationsmaps.com