07/08/2022
I think a highly of this man, he makes sense to me.
54 years ago, after grad school, I became a community organizer in the D.C. area, focused on racial justice. At age 29, I began experiencing the slings and arrows of politics—a fancy way of saying that some folks screamed at me about my “liberal” values. For a while, I found this upsetting. Then I learned the difference between critics who could be laughed off and those from whom I might learn something. I also learned that justice isn’t a “liberal” value—it’s a basic human right.
These days, some Americans have taken up screaming as a hobby. My July 4th post about Frederick Douglass and racial justice drew a lot of heartening comments, as often happens in this online community that I so deeply value. But a few screams came my way that you might find as amusing as I did! Here’s a sample:
• One man yelled that I had Douglass’s views backwards, and called me dishonest and unAmerican. When I offered evidence that he was wrong about Douglass, and politely asked for his evidence, he simply repeated his accusation. I’m sure he’s a busy fellow and needed a time-saver. • A woman posted a one-liner calling my books worthless, “proving" her point by claiming that they do not sell. The latter came as a surprise to me since I’ve made my living by writing for 40 years. • A pastor said that “woke theologians” like me are the real problem in this country because I don’t back up what I say with the Bible. In vain, I searched Scripture for a sin called “wokeness,” proving that this preacher backs up what HE says with Fox News cliches. The Biblical reference needed here is “whited sepulcher.”
That brings me to today’s poem, a classic by William Stafford. As a conscientious objector in WWII, he was used to folks screaming at him. He worked in a Civilian Public Service Camp rather than bear arms, an act many regarded as unpatriotic. Stafford believed that our failure to know and understand each other as human beings—our tendency to hurl insults, falsehoods, and judgements rather than ask and listen and learn—is the source of a lot of misery.
At this painful time in U.S. history, let’s do what we can to know others and let ourselves be known on a human level, regardless of political differences. But it’s worth noting that there are conversations not worth having. Elie Wiesel, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning survivor of Buchenwald and Auschwitz, refused to talk with Holocaust deniers. He did not want to give the evil of willful ignorance any oxygen.
Let’s say that some 30% of Americans are operating with willful ignorance today, as in The Big Lie. That leaves 70% who might welcome the kind of conversations that Stafford urges us to have. I, for one, am eager to find more ways to meet and talk with folks in that 70%. I believe we have a lot in common, and need to touch in with it before "the darkness around us" becomes deeper...
[My 10 books are at tiny.cc/qocmuz AND http://tiny.cc/5rcmuz. Just remember, they’re worthless!]
