Fear and Loathing in the U. S. A.

Fear and Hate are a duo with a history as long as humans have peopled the planet. It is that fear of The Other, of those who look different from us, who speak a different language than we do, who practice customs or religions unfamiliar to ours that make us uncomfortable, suspicious, and afraid. It has been so as long as our country has existed, and sadly, still is.


I was naïve, I know, to believe that Americans were on the road to recovery from our ugly past, a past that included: forcing Native Americans onto the Trail of Tears and into reservations on worthless land; of interning Japanese Americans during World War II, even though they had been born here and were citizens of this country; of enslaving African Americans early in our history and then forcing them into economic and social servitude even after the Civil War.


I was rosy-eyed to a fault when I truly believed that the Jim Crow Era would end the moment people heard Martin Luther King’s Dream Speech. And I now know that I was a fool to believe that the election of a black president in my lifetime meant that we had finally come to terms with who were meant to be as a nation, a nation where anyone’s son or daughter could eventually grow up to be president. I hear racial slurs about our president and see signs with racial epithets and depictions not seen in public since the 1960’s except at a Klan or skin-head rally. Disagree with his policies if his views are contrary to yours, but do it without demeaning his parentage or questioning his citizenry. Those who insist that he is an Other, a man illegally holding our highest office because he wasn’t born here--all evidence to the contrary—must be hysterical or hate-filled.


I have lost track of how many groups have been labeled with epithets and regarded as inferior in our history, many of whom continue to be, even in the 21st century: Native Americans, Jews, African Americans, Catholics, Irish, Italians, Eastern Europeans, Chinese, Japanese, Hispanics, Muslims, women, gays and lesbians, people who are mentally challenged, just to name a few.


The United States of America was an idea, inspired by enlightened ideals. Men penning the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, those uttering uplifting phrases like “all men are created equal,” owned slaves and accepted that all free women were little more than chattel. And yet they wrote that we were forming “a more perfect union.” Are we there yet? Obviously not. Are we closer than we have been? Yes. Should we continue to strive for that ideal? Absolutely yes.


Is it all right for all of us to take our eyes off the majesty of the promise in our founding documents? Shouldn’t all of us keep our eyes on that prize? More than ever, each of us has to try harder to treat others as we would have them treat us. Instead of listening to those who spew hatred, turn away and perform a random act of kindness. Try to transform fear of The Other into trying to understand those who seem different and unlike you.


And yes, I know how sappy this sounds, how all unicorns and puppies I seem. I realize that there is plenty of ugly out there and that sociopaths, fanatics, and truly amoral and immoral people exist. But I also know that not all Muslims are al-Qaida, that all African American males are not gang bangers, that all illegals are not part of the Mexican drug cartel, that all strong women are not femi-Nazis, that all gays and lesbians are not a threat to hetero-sexual marriage.


If all of us would just limit our application of that broad brush with which we paint those who are different from us, it would be a beginning. Remember, for every travesty with which you accuse one of “Them,” there is someone of your ilk who has done the same or worse.