My growth depends on my walls coming down.  Evelyn Underhill

I grew up in a very protective cocoon. After my father died my mother made certain that my brothers and I would always feel safe and loved. Our neighborhood was a fairly new suburb south of downtown Houston in which the troubles of the outside world rarely evidenced themselves. The people there were good and so were the schools and churches and activities for kids like me. My life felt free and easy aside from meeting my responsibilities for studying and doing my homework. While my mother was struggling with a hopelessly small budget I was blissfully unaware. Somehow I never once worried that we might miss a meal or lose our home. Life was delightful for me. 

I remember certain events that seemed to affect some of my peers more than they impressed me. One was the Cuban Missile Crisis that I knew very little about until years later when I was an adult. It was only then that I realized how close our nation had been to a nuclear showdown. At the time I wondered why my teacher advised us on what to do if an emergency situation arose. It was all a passing and meaningless event to me even though as a seventh grader I should have been old enough to have some kind of understanding about the gravity of the situation. 

It was only with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy that I woke up and saw that the world was a much more dangerous and cruel place than I had imagined. His death hit me hard and from that point forward ai began to notice more and more that was happening that would have an impact on me and my fellow Americans. In the blink of an eye I began to pay attention and to change. 

When my mother had her first horrific bout with mental illness I was still shy and reticent when it came to speaking my mind but I had already been thinking about the troubling aspects of the world around me and somehow that change provided me with the courage to advocate for her. Once I found the bravery that I needed I did not stop. I began a crusade of self discovery that lead to to the possibilities of ideas that had never before occurred to me. I voraciously studied political, psychological, sociological and philosophical ideas about the best ways for humans to live in harmony in a massive world. 

Of course my life had taught me to be realistic, to understand that there is no perfect panacea for the ills that seem to taunt humans. Nonetheless I made a concerted effort to learn about people and ways of living that I had not known before. Being a child who grew up in the segregated south I was shocked to learn of the mistreatment of Black people who lived in my city rather close by where I had grown up. I realized the evil of the old ways and welcomed and supported their integration into our society. In meeting them I saw that they were far more like me than different. In fact, over time I have witnessed the human characteristics that link all of us regardless of where we were born, how we have lived, the color of our skin, the language of our communication. It is truly in the content of our hearts that I see the glory of our oneness in a desire for peaceful and safe lives for ourselves and others in this world. 

As I matured and worked with people and students of every possible economic and demographic backgrounds I realized the prejudices that I once had and how I needed to eradicate them from my thinking. I began to understand how much better we become as people when we are fortunate enough to know and love people just as they are, not was we may have once thought that they should be. The worth of an individual has nothing to do with their income, their intellect, their country of origin, their religious beliefs, or their sexual preferences. When all is said and done there is no such thing as a more superior kind of person. The man who so meticulously maintains the landscape of my yard is as important as the doctor who guides my health. The glorious variety of the world keeps us vibrant. Isolating ourselves from others who are different makes us stagnant and uninteresting. Each person who is born has special talents and worthiness that it is our duty to protect, not shun. 

At the present time the president of our nation seems intent on isolating us and choosing only certain kinds of people to be part of our freedoms and privileges. He wrongly and openly classifies whole swathes of people as being either good or bad. He ranks humans based on their wealth rather than their character. He is unwilling to even consider alternative beliefs. He wants to create a one size fits all kind of America in which we all think and act alike. He rejects the idea that each human is complex. He prefers a simplification of life based on bottom lines and adherence to a single way of thinking. He has yet to break down the walls that constrict his mind and therefore make him ignorant and dangerous. 

I am happy that I have been guided into expanding my own horizons. Perhaps it was my father’s influence that encouraged my journey. Maybe it came from teachers who introduced me to alternative ways of looking at life. Perhaps I learned it from the variety of people that I have met over the years. Whatever the case, I am glad that I have not restricted myself to believing that some people are not worth my attention. Each person who lives and breathes on this earth began life as a gift to us all. We would do well to focus our efforts on helping everyone to tear down the walls that lead them to prejudices and hate. Once the barriers are gone life becomes so much more interesting and beautiful.