us, do we not die?”
--“The Merchant of Venice”, Shakespeare
Strange days in our nation.
New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow may have best
described the intense swirl of conflicting feelings and emotions millions of
Americans experienced in the past two weeks.
He writes: “[It]…was a bit surreal. As America
was celebrating the victory of marriage equality at the Supreme Court, it was
also mourning [nine] black people in South
Carolina murdered by a white supremacist.” These are awe-filled
and awful days. One day our nation takes
a historic step towards full inclusion.
Another day, in bloodshed and heartbreak, we remember how far we still have
to go.
Millions of our fellow Americans empowered with the legal right
to marry: to love and to make families. Millions of our fellow Americans still
targeted for hatred and bias and violence.
The “other” welcomed in. The “other” cut down. It makes me weep and laugh, celebrate and
grieve, proud to be an American and ashamed to be an American. In July 4th’s shadow,
these events remind us that we have
come a long way in 239 years, but my goodness: we’ve yet got such a long, long way
to go too.
When oh when will we as a people see the full dignity and worth
of all the people? All the people? All
of our neighbors and friends, every last one? All of the men and women and
children with whom share this home, the United States of America? Some argue that through the rule of law we’ll
finally get to the promised land and they point to the Supreme Court’s ruling
as proof of this power. Others say we are already there. Look: we have an
African-American President. Look: folks
of different sexual orientations are very out and visible in our culture and
country.
True and yet….
Laws are not enough. The human heart cannot be changed through
a legislative act or court decision. Authentic inclusion cannot be mandated or
forced. We can post rainbow flags all we want on Facebook or Twitter but such public
posturing risks little or nothing. The only truth which finally redeems is our
shared humanity and our ability to embrace this reality. That we all bleed if
we are pricked. We all weep when a loved
one dies. We all aspire to love another special
person and be loved in return and live in peace. Until we recognize this flesh and blood
connection to the person we may still label as “the other”, nothing will
change.
As Atticus Finch says to his daughter Scout, in Harper Lee’s
“To Kill a Mockingbird”, “…if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get
along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a
person until you consider things from his point of view […] until you climb
into his skin and walk around in it."
Until we who are white have the courage to face how hard life is for so
many people of color in our land, things won’t change. Until we who are straight have the moral
imagination to understand what it is like to have your essence as a child of
God called “sinful” and “unnatural”, nothing will change. Until we who are privileged by virtue of the
class we are born into or the zip code we call home, until we confront the pain
of poverty and being poor, nothing will change.
Finally, we are all human, all children of God, all.
Before we are a color, or a gender, or an orientation, or a
class, or a race, or a religion, or a nationality, we are all human. Get that and the world can change, absolutely. Miss that and the world will continue on as
it is. Two thousand years ago a wise
teacher was asked to name the most important of God’s laws. His answer was
simple: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Such ancient wisdom seems so simple. If I want to be treated with equality and
justice, I’ll do the same to others. If
I want to be accepted for who I am, I must accept others for the person God
made them to be. If I don’t want to be
judged, labeled, or stereotyped, I need to stop doing that to my neighbor.
Strange days.
Amazing and incredible days filled with joy. Sad and tragic days filled with loss. America: we’ve come a long
way. America: we’ve still got miles to
go to reach our promised land.
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