Friday, August 20, 2010

I will continue to hope, because hope is that last inch......

Years ago, I was an understudy for a play called The King Has Gone To Tenebrae. It was written by a man named George Herman, who I just happened to get back into contact after many years....still spry for an 80-something; he hasn't lost a step. But that's not what I'm talking about.

There was a line in the play:

"Remember, boy: we become....what we hate."

This little phrase has been coming back to me again and again in the last couple of days. It's been one of those manic times; I've been diving again and again into the pool of information, seeking thought-provoking snippets from the Wonderful World of Web. I've looked into anything and everything I found fascinating about life in America at the end of this first decade.

I'm trying to wrap my head around a concept that seems to obvious to me, that I can't imagine it hasn't been brought up before.

We have become an amalgamation of all of the worst demons of our collective national nature. We have become xenophobic; and in that trait lies the seeds of those horrible fields we once sowed, and reaped, to our shame: interment camps; tin drum trials and quick and quiet executions after rushes to judgement based upon the fact that they weren't "like us"; terrible lies told over public airwaves, turning hearts to stone and repeated just often enough to "become" the truth.

A growing economic and social divide. Where once, those of us not to the Manor born worked and strived to improve our lot, looking to the shining example as the goal....are now darkly resentful of the the Manor, and are offended and antagonized by the shining example....and you can almost hear the knives being sharpened.

And those that could de-escalate the conflagration are actually throwing the kerosene, implying that they are just speaking the truth....but their inner truth is that they WANT the fire to burn.


I am a cynic by nature; and from time to time, I feel an "I told you so!" bubbling up in my chest....but I force it down, because it's time for honesty and not cynicism; it's time for ideas, and not roadblocks.

It's time we started hearing all sides.

The President is NOT a Muslim.

The "Ground Zero Mosque" is six blocks away. In normal measures of distance, that's a far way (as we say in the elsewhere).

We are not at war with Islam.

If the 2nd Amendment is valid in this day and age, so are they all.

I may disagree with what you say with every fiber of my being, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

We will never get anywhere without respecting each other.



My challenge to you all: Do ONE good deed today. You can do more than one if you want, but do ONE. And then write to me and tell me what it was and how it made you feel.


Jeepers Creepers! When does the SUN RISE?!

1 comment:

Kizz said...

Well, I feel in some ways that my good deed for the last month has not been popping the very heads off every wanker from middle America claiming to have a horse in this mosque race but I don't think that counts.

I rescued a dog this week. Hard to tell if that's a good deed or a selfish one but it's working out pretty well so far. I'm getting him neutered. That, for sure, is a good deed.