Less
than a month from now I will be eligible for Medicare and by that standard I’ve
lived long enough to learn a few things, one of which is that it’s
counter-productive to fret overly-much about what anybody thinks of me.
I’m
well-read. I’ve ventured outside the
confines of the United States. I am no
longer a candidate for having the “Kick Me” sign hung on my back. But there are any number of things that
baffle me, make me shake my head, cause me to say “I don’t get it.”
I don’t
get why a friendly conversation is so hard to come by in the public arena these
days.
I don’t
get how a sweet little girl sacrifices her entire childhood in favor of incredibly
rigorous athletic training, rises to the top of her field, and wins gold – twice
– at the Olympics, only to be made the
center of controversy over her HAIR, of all things, and the color of her
leotard.
I don’t
get what people mean when they say we need “a real American” in the White House. Are they indicating that they want a Native American
Indian for president? Because obviously,
the rest of us came from somewhere else and thus are not “real.”
I don’t
get why it’s a point of controversy when the First Lady (as is traditional)
chooses childhood obesity as her personal cause, since obesity in general is a
huge thing in this country (pun definitely intended) and our children are
suffering. Somebody has to care that this is happening.
I don’t get why
people continue to insist that the United States is officially a Christian nation,
when the framers of the Constitution made it abundantly clear in the First
Amendment that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Free exercise means ANY and ALL religion.
I don’t
get why people insist that a single verse from Leviticus must be obeyed to the
letter, while totally ignoring the remainder of that particular passage and so
many more.
I don’t
get how certain things become labeled as being “liberal” or “conservative.” For example, recycling – why is that
seen as an inherently subversive thing to do?
We have just one Earth, and so far no one has discovered a viable
alternative, so it seems only wise to take care of this little spot in the
universe. The relatively conservative
farm boy with whom I spent 34 years of my life went out and bought Rubbermaid
tubs the week the big recycling plant opened in Meade, America, and we
faithfully salvaged everything reusable from that point forward. His vastly more conservative parents did the
same in their small town, and proudly delivered their newspapers and other
recyclables to the collection shed on a regular basis. Every time someone looks askance at me for doing
my tiny part to help preserve the integrity of the planet, it makes me shake my
head. It doesn’t, however, deter me from
what is by now an ingrained habit.
I DON’T get it
… but I probably DO get it … and here’s what I think is going on …
I think friendly
conversations are becoming fewer and further between because life is all about
change, more so now than ever, and people are running scared, which makes them
cling ever more desperately to their personal points of view.
I think
Gabby Douglas’s hair is considered fair game because it’s somehow “foreign,”
“other,” “not like us.” And I think Fox
News gets by with slamming her simply
because she’s “that” brand of “different.”
I think
our President is threatening for those same reasons, even though he is as much “white
like us,” as he is “different.” He had
white grandparents who adored him and a white mother from Kansas, of all
places. An ordinary girl, an ordinary
family, an ordinary life, all of which came together to produce an
extraordinary man. But because he lives
inside black skin, was given a scary-sounding foreign name through no fault of
his own, and was uppity enough to run for president and win, it becomes
necessary to invent a “back story” in order to justify why we choose not to
like him.
Our
First Lady -- scary, other, different? I
think you have to stretch pretty hard to make those labels stick, other than
the fact that she, too, resides inside black skin that blessedly doesn’t look
like ours. I think her tremendous
education level and innate intelligence, as well as those of the president, are
intimidating and threatening to a certain segment of the population.
I think
people insist on making this an officially “Christian” nation because that
makes it feel safer and more “ours”. And
it makes it acceptable to persecute and call out and label and denigrate … and
kill … Sikhs, Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, and anyone else who is different …
other … thus, somehow threatening.
I think
it’s out of ignorance and fear that people carefully extract and selectively
interpret the portion of Leviticus that enables and sanctifies their hatred of
an entire group of people, while ignoring ALL of the other injunctions,
primarily the ones that command us to
“Love thy neighbor.”
I think
that ignorance breeds fear, and fear breeds hatred, and hatred breeds violence.
I think
that more than two hundred years of societal evolution, education, and exposure
to the way the rest of the civilized world views things have brought us very
little in the way of maturity, wisdom, kindness, and human progress in this
country. Willful ignorance and backwardness
sadden and trouble me beyond words, and for all the indignant claims on the
part of “Christians,” I think we get it wrong on SO many things. I honestly believed we’d moved past all of
this years ago. Silly me. Call me naïve and slap the “Kick Me” sign on
my backside when I’m not looking.
I think
one of the greatest joys of having a personal blog is the freedom to say
exactly what I think. And that the
blowback that results from honesty and the willingness to speak up is
inevitable and a natural part of the process.
I get that.
Obviously,
I think a lot of things. But if you get
why recycling is scorned as an intrinsically “liberal” activity, please give me
a call. I don’t know WHAT to think about
that one.
Judy,
ReplyDeleteThank you for voicing my thoughts in such a graceful and succinct way. We are joined at the heart about such issues and I'm glad you take pride in communicating them.
Hugs and love,
Patty