The Message Bears Repeating
Fri., April 15, 09:41 AM
The Anti-Defamation League released a disturbing report last week: hate crimes are up in Connecticut. Just Connecticut? I don’t know. Actions based on racism, genderism, or ethnicity are actually illegal in Connecticut, and that may actually lead to more of them being reported. I question just about everything, because journalism – which I used to respect and trust – has been twisting the news for more than thirty-five years that I have noticed.
Maybe this is happening only in Connecticut? No, the Purple Chai reports someone speaking inappropriately in public, not a child but an adult with some standing in the community. Where do people lose their sensitivity? Or did they never learn it?
”It’s the economy, stupid.” Maybe. In a post that I wrote a couple of years ago, I suggested that bullies are people who can only feel “big” if they make someone else feel smaller. In other words, I think that bigotry is triggered by some sort of fear. In case you can’t see the connection, consider this. When there is a shortage of anything – commodities, space, jobs – how can you ensure that you will win your “fair share”? You have to prove that you are, somehow, more worthy. Wars have been fought on just such a premise.
On the one hand, you have to have some kind of criteria for personal values, lest you allow unacceptable actions to influence your life. But you have to be careful to judge individuals on their own virtues, before you decide that your brown eyes makes you better than my gray ones. And you have to define your values in order to teach them to your kids. As Oscar Hammerstein wrote, you’ve got to be taught.
I’ve recently heard another set of lyrics that points out the same idea. This comes from Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods.” I’ve included only a portion of the song, because – like so many Broadway songs – it expounds at length.
Careful the things you say,
Children will listen.
Careful the things you do,
Children will see.
And learn.
Children may not obey,
But children will listen.
Children will look to you
For which way to turn,
To learn what to be.
Careful before you say,
Listen to me.
Children will listen.
Perhaps the most important thing we can teach our children, in our very diverse world, is respect for individuals. This is the world in which they have to live; they can’t make it better until they understand it. “Prejudice” means to pre-judge. We can’t afford to do that.
Finally, I found the following in Lindefarn’s Blog, an off-shoot of my favorite “Kevin and Kell.”
Our society is rigidly defined along diet, which could be a totally artificial construction. What if the categories are more malleable than we ever suspected? I wonder further, who benefits from keeping us divided?
Who indeed?
