All It Takes Is A Little Love

In a speech at the White House near the end of the twentieth century Elie Wiesel spoke of the perils of indifference, ignoring or not caring about the suffering of others. We don’t have to wear sackcloth or donate all of our money to charitable causes, but we must be aware of injustice and need in the world around us. We must work to erase the horrors of the present even if it means sacrificing some of our luxuries. The wrong approach would be to insist that sufferings happening far away from our neighborhoods or our nation have nothing to do with us. If we are indeed to be compassionate and loving Christians or Jews or Muslims or agnostics we must be willing to speak out whenever and wherever we see humans being persecuted or ignored. It is up to each of us to actively work to stamp out ignorance and hate and brutality. Averting our glances or proclaiming that it is none of our concern is the prelude to assassinations and wars and genocides. 

Every person on this earth is worthy of enjoying a good life of freedom, security and respect. Sadly far too many souls are victims of circumstances over which they have little control. When they come to us pleading for understanding and help we must not allow indifference to their plights cause us to ignore or even persecute them. 

We often refuse to ask the right questions when massive numbers of people are risking their very lives to cross over our borders. Instead of seeing them as problems that must be eradicated we need to ask why they are here. We need to know what they are attempting to escape, what they hope to find. We must treat them as the beautiful individuals they are. We would do well to show them respect and kindness. But for our own good fortune we might be one of them, dreaming of a decent life for ourselves and for our families. When our only thought is to deport them or treat them like criminals without ever knowing them, we are practicing the most vile form of indifference.

When we condemn the students who are attempting to make us aware of the destruction of life in Gaza we might be inclined to see them as trouble makers, rabble rousers who are behaving like spoiled children. Our indifference to what they have to say clouds the real issue which is that they want justice for the innocent, not for Hamas or evil doers. They want the displaced children and families of Gaza to be safe. Their intentions are admirable, not anti-semitic. They only criticize the extreme violence being inflicted on people who had nothing to do with the October attack on Israel. The majority of them advocate for peace and fairness. They are not indifferent to the nuances of the conflict, but many times those of us who criticize them are in fact indifferent to their good intentions. 

When we hurl our religious invective at people that we consider to be perverse we are acting exactly the opposite to true Christian beliefs. We become hardened and indifferent to Jesus’ message to love each other. Our judgmental attitudes keep us from seeing those whose lifestyles are not the same as ours as human beings worthy of love and compassion. Our indifference to the the taunting and suffering that they continue to endure in the name of all that is holy is in stark contrast to how Jesus urged us to be. He did not hang out with the wealthy or even the most religious men of his time. He spurned sacred rules that hurt people. He embraced those who were shunned by society over and over again. Surely as we read about his life it should be obvious that he was never indifferent to the most vulnerable outcasts. In fact, he died because of his audacious behavior that pointed to the hypocrisy of religious men who hid behind the rules of indifference. 

I firmly believe that most people are good. They want what is best for all people. Sometimes they just feel overwhelmed by the many events that are wreaking havoc in the world today. Sometimes they simply believe that they must first begin with themselves and their families. After all it would be incredibly daunting to be responsible for the entire world. Not even the great President Franklin Roosevelt thought that he should interfere with the way things were by welcoming the Jewish refugees who sought relief in the United States when they sailed here on the St. Louis. He watched as they were sent back, perhaps hoping that they would ultimately be okay. Instead many of them eventually perished in concentration camps. 

We might have thought that being part of the Civil Rights movement of the twentieth century was really none of our business but our indifference to segregation and prejudice toward our Black brothers and sisters forced leaders like Martin Luther King Jr and others to show us the faces of fellow citizens who had yet to be freed from the prejudices of slavery. Those marchers made the people who were still waiting to be released from the chains of racism visible and real to us. It was imperative that we be roused from accepting things the way they had always been. 

Indifference is the enemy of justice and compassion. There are times when we must not look away no matter how uncomfortable it may be to seek the truth. We cannot suggest that because something does not directly affect us that we should not worry about it. We must always be open to learning about the problems of people the world over. We should be willing to listen to them without preconceived notions and we must act when we have the opportunity to help them. Most among us already do such things. Others are unsure or maybe even a bit afraid to take on the problems of people they do not know. We can start by being open and loving and caring about making a difference. 

Ukrainian children went back to school this week. A little girl talked about learning in a hybrid program that will include in person teaching sometime and remote teaching most of the time. She spoke of having a bomb shelter to go to either way if attacks happen where she is on any given day. 

Try to imagine that! We certainly had duck and cover drills for bombs when I was in school. They were few and of course only practice. We often laughed and scoffed at the possibility that our training might one day become necessary. It’s good that it never became real because we had no bomb shelters, only our desks or maybe our own arms covering our heads afforded any kind of protection. The one time I ever felt a real need for such exercises was in an October of long ago during the Cuban Missile Crisis. A good number of my fellow students did not even show up for class in that scary moment. My teacher advised those of us who walked to school to get down in a low depression in the sidewalk or street and then cover our heads just as we had practiced. I remember snickering inside silently because there were no ditches or dips in the landscape anywhere along my route home. 

We have been unbelievably fortunate here in the United States. Aside from the American Revolution, the French and Indian War, the Civil War, or terrorist and shooter attacks we have lived in relative peace. I suppose some groups like our Black citizens might prefer to differ that life has been mostly serene. I understand how they continue to worry about racist attacks on them and how they have little recourse to protect themselves.  

I have never really thought much about the possibility of either traditional or guerrilla warfare taking place in our country. Still, even without actual experience I can see from photos and videos how horrifically war impacts even innocent people. I am riven in two by the war that continues in Israel and Gaza. Both countries are suffering with no end in sight in spite of countless efforts to broker a ceasefire or, even better, an end of the wars. 

I think of the children impacted by war. I grieve over the innocence of childhood that they have lost. I cry at the thought of little ones being frightened and on edge all of the time. They should not have to adapt to horrors so unfairly foisted on them. The want, the injuries, the disease that follows from humans warring with each other changes them forever. When no place is safe they lose a sense of security and trust. Their development is interrupted. They become little more than pawns being moved about by powerful men who can’t find a way to get along with their enemies. Everything that they know is being destroyed.

The little girl in Ukraine demonstrates how children adapt when their lives are not longer novel, but why should she have to pay for the sins of tyrants? Why should a little one in Gaza have live for almost a year now in a state of uncertainty, disease, hunger, violence and destruction. Why should Israeli children live in the fear that no place is safe anymore? What is in our human DNA that all too often brings out warmongering? What in the name of God could possibly make it right to be an aggressor, to kill people who have somehow become enemies?

I cry that children anywhere in the world are ever subjected to our worst and evil traits! I understand death and how it affects the young. Losing my father in a time of peace changed me forever, made me feel less secure, more anxious. Once we humans experience death and destruction for any reason we change. A bit of our psyches are battered and bruised as surely as though an abuser is beating us for what feels like no good reason. 

I can feel the pain of war unlike the way I laughed at the very idea that we really needed drills for attacks by enemies who did not even know us. The fighting makes me feel emotions that are horrific. I want to scream or cry or protest wars. I want the killing to stop. We have seen too much of it of late in between what we view in foreign nations and the vile aftermath of so many mass shootings. We must assess our humanity and wonder how or if it is even possible to maintain peace other forever. 

I cried this morning upon hearing about the people protesting in the streets of Israel. I cried at the thought of babies being paralyzed from polio in Gaza. I cried listening to the little Ukrainian student describing what schooling will be like. I cried when I heard of mass shooting or assassination attempts. I am so tired of crying and feeling helpless that any of it will ever change. Violence is hell for everyone. 

The small talk around our kitchen table often centers on what today’s college students ought to choose as majors. It’s an especially sensitive topic for me because I have always had a sense that members of my family who were more financially successful than I have been are a bit disapproving of my choice to be a teacher. I’ve heard a number of would’ve, could’ve should’ve comments from well meaning folks who seem to wonder if I squandered my intellectual potential on a career that seems to always be under fire from the general public. I suppose that in their minds the least I might have done would have been to be a college professor rather than a mathematics teacher who never once cleared six figures in my salary. 

I suppose they will never understand me or those who choose to major in music or dance or theater. They can’t imagine a practical use for English or History or Psychology. They lay most of the problems of the economy on young people who foolishly squander tuition on studying seemingly silly things. They insist that college should force students to be practical by choosing science or mathematics or technology or engineering. They see studying business as a far more practical route to take than a study of linguistics. They don’t appear to understand that not everyone enjoys such subjects and some even have the audacity to want to feel good about going to work when they finally use the lessons that they learned at a university. 

I constantly find myself defending the person who chooses to major in anthropology or visual arts. As an educator I know all too well that each of us have different ways of learning, different parts of our brains that are more active, different dreams of how we wish to live our lives. Sometimes the heft of our paychecks is not as important to many of us as doing something that gives us joy, that has meaning on a daily basis. 

Such issues led me to eagerly read a lovely article about an author’s attendance at a thirty year reunion of her class at Harvard. The fifty something alums gathered over a weekend filled with stories of how life had been for them since the times when they eagerly dreamed of futures that may or may not have ultimately transpired. In the pensive moments of conversation the author learned much about who is happy and who is still searching for the joy that they once sought.

In general she found that the most joyful and contented folks were those who chose to be teachers or doctors. Interacting with people and making a real difference in their lives seemed to be quite satisfying. Many of the business people spoke of trying something else before reaching retirement age. They were comfortable financially but had missed the feeling of accomplishment that comes with serving others. Ironically the artists of all kinds admitted to struggling with lower incomes but when all was said and done would not trade the dleight that they felt from performing or creating that was the main source of their satisfaction. 

The author pointed out that what everyone talked about the most was family, relationships, love. They had reached a point of being less judgmental than they had once been and less likely to worry about how they might be viewed in superficial ways. The meaning in life was found in people and those who had opportunities to share their talents with people were the most certain that they had chosen the right pathways in life. 

I often tell young people to do what they love. While that may sound dangerous if that person loves cooking more than anything, why would I not encourage him/her to find a way to use that passion as a life’s work? We always do a better job if we wake up in the morning wanting to go to work. We certainly need to pay rent and eat but I can’t think of anything worse than dreading a job that brings absolutely no joy no matter how much it may pay. 

Hundreds of years ago education was not so much about providing specific skills for a profession or career but about teaching young people to think and to understand how to use words and numbers and ideas. Scholars got a liberal arts degree in which they mastered writing, rhetoric, philosophy, Latin, Greek, literature, mathematics, and such. The focus was on widening the focus for students rather than narrowing down their abilities to a single area. Colleges and universities offer many majors not just to increase their cash flow or to find jobs for professors but because they know that theirs is a place for many kinds of knowledge in the world. How dull would life be without the many avenues of study that we humans have created. How awful it would feel if we all had to do the same kind of jobs.

Those Harvard grads seemed to have figured out that happiness is not always found in titles or bank accounts. Those things are nice to have but when we sit down with old friends and honestly speak of our lives the commonality that we all seem to share is all about what we do for others rather than what we have accumulated for ourselves. We need to remember that whenever a young person earnestly admits that he wants to try something that may sounds foolish to us. Who are we to dash dreams in favor of being practical? That young man or woman who majors in journalism may change the world. 

By now everyone knows whom everyone else is going to support in our upcoming Presidential election. Four years ago I made it very clear that I had never supported Donald Trump and never intended to do so. Today I am even more firmly entrenched in my feeling that Donald Trump is not worthy of filling the highest job in the land, but I also know many people who believe that he is the only candidate worthy of being our Commander in Chief. While I am realistic about this fact, I am still having difficulty understanding why it is so, and why even people who know and love each other can be so far apart in their political beliefs. 

I do not think that anything I say in my blog will change minds. If the incidents of January 6, 2021 did not cause people to spurn Trump forevermore then I doubt that any fact or revelation will ever do so. Sadly I was an eyewitness to what happened on that day. I know what I heard from the lips of Donald Trump and I know what I saw from those who stormed the Capitol. I did not tune out from the coverage until the last vote was tallied under the leadership of Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi early the next morning in the dark before dawn. 

Nobody will ever convince me that Donald Trump did not maliciously attempt to overturn the results of a fair election. That alone should have barred him from running for office ever again, but here we are with a convicted felon promising vengeance against those brave souls who saw what he was doing on that day and wanted to hold him and his followers accountable. The fact that he continually argues that the people who have been jailed for their violence in that moment should be pardoned tells me that they were only doing his bid, and he knows it. How, I constantly ask myself, can any patriotic American who loves this nation and its ideals even suggest that such a man should be reinstated in his office?

Donald Trump was a failed president in my estimation. He mishandled the pandemic resulting in the needless deaths of thousands of Americans. He dishonored the military over and over again. He was unable to keep cabinet members because he had no honor and no idea what he was doing. He was a bully and a man who to this day stoops to schoolyard antics to demean women, the disabled, people who are overweight, anyone or group that he dislikes. When Mike Pence declares that he will not be able to support the man under whom he served as Vice President it seems to me that no more should have to be said. When high ranking military men tell us that they have no respect for Trump I truly wonder why we should trust him with our nuclear codes or as the spokesperson for our nation on the world stage. Put simply I do not believe that Donald Trump is good for the United States of America.

I was horrified when a sick young man attempted to assassinate Donald Trump. I am against violence in all instances. I do not want harm to come to him, but I would surely like for him and his toxicity to finally go away. I am not certain that our United States can take much more of his selfish and self serving behavior. We need a President whose first thoughts are for all of us, not his own personal issues. His meandering and lying may fool some, but it will never fool me. Nothing becomes true just because someone repeats it over and over again. Fact checking Trump is tedious because his statements are filled with fallacies and untruths, but doing so reveals just how dishonest he is. 

I once compared Trump to one of those door to door salespeople who latch onto a potential customer like a mad dog nipping at someone’s ankles. He blathers on and on hoping that we will grow weary and buy his boasts and lies. I learned a long time ago that the only way to deal with someone like that is to never open the door, but if we do so by mistake then we must have the courage to slam the door once it becomes apparent that he has nothing that we want. We have to be brave enough to call him out.

As I said before my comments here will endear me to those who already think like I do and will irk those who have their own ideas about Donald Trump. I simply wanted to make it clear for posterity that I will be voting for honesty, patriotism, my democracy. Donald Trump represents none of those things. He is a traitor to our constitution and I hope that we the people will not allow him to defile the United States with his hatefulness and divisiveness ever again. I will be voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. I put this in writing because I believe with all of my being that doing anything less threatens all that we Americans hold dear. I do this because I believe that in this moment it is now up to us to protect our nation from someone who would tear it down to bolster his own selfish pride. 

I don’t sleep well at night. I worry that we are all in grave danger from Donald Trump. He is a clear and present danger to the very foundations of our democracy. He is already setting the stage for either a win or a loss. He will be trouble whichever way things go. I hope with every fiber of my being that somehow we will finally put him and his outrageous ideas to rest. It can only happen if enough of us take the time to vote him out. Maybe just maybe someone who is on the fence will read this and change his or her mind. It certainly can’t hurt for me to try to get just one more vote against a man who is so wrong for America.  

I suppose that I think about mental health a bit more than most people. Perhaps it is because my mother had bipolar disorder. Before I was even twenty one years old I began a long journey of helping to keep her mental state as stable as possible. It was more than a part time effort that required my vigilance and patience for over forty years.

During that same time I was a teacher of adolescents and young adults some of whom suffered from a variety of mental health issues as well. I saw depression up close and personally on many occasions and learned how to read the signs that someone was in trouble. I realized that mental disorders can happen to anyone even in the most caring and loving families. I have in many ways mastered a keen ability to know when someone is struggling with even when they are quite adept at masking their symptoms. I have seen the kind of triggers that sometimes take people down a kind of rabbit hole of darkness from which they struggle to emerge. 

Isolation and loneliness are enemies of our good mental health as surely as smoking is bad for our hearts and and lungs. Sadly, many of the tools that make life more interesting and hopeful also have the power of bringing a kind of darkness into some people’s lives. In particular, because of the pandemic people all over the world suddenly found themselves spending more and more time interacting remotely with the world around them. They often sat for days and weeks on end in their rooms, rarely meeting up with people outside of their homes. Social media became an outlet for belonging that all too often ended up only increasing the anxieties that people were feeling. In many ways the situation impacted young people the most as a long swath of their development was spent without the normal interactions and collaborations that are a key aspect of growing up. 

Now we have unprecedented numbers of our young people suffering from all kinds of mental disorders that sometimes sadly lead to self harm or even suicide. Social media while playing a key role in helping them to feel connected to others has also had the negative effect of making them feel even more alone and dispirited. There are far too many young people still tethered to a remote lifestyle that is sucking the life out of them. Often they do not even realize just how dark and lost they have become from making themselves prisoners inside a digital world devoid of human contact. They do not know how to fully return to life outside of the four walls of their homes.

I always knew that my mother was in trouble mentally whenever she drew the blinds and curtains in her home, quit answering the phone, and sat by herself dwelling on obsessive thoughts that made her unable to function or even sleep at night. While she had a real disease that created chemical changes in her brain, the illness was exaggerated by her isolation. Without reduced human contact her mind ran wild and made her sicker and sicker with each passing hour. On those occasions my brothers and I had to forcefully intervene to get her to a doctor for help. We also had to make sure that she regularly got out of the confines of her home to interact with other people. We had to bring the sunshine to her lest she dive so deeply into her depression that there would be no coming back to reality. 

I constantly see signs of people who have not yet been able to fully return to normal after the worldwide pandemic. They spend most of their days alone. With each passing day they have become more and more adverse to venturing out into public spaces. Many such persons are youngsters who attend school but spend most of the rest of their time in their rooms using computers as their recreational outlet. They become lost in a world of games and social media. They are like the aimless guy in the basement who has no goals or prospects. Their minds begin to play tricks on them, to turn on them. 

The Surgeon General of the United States has come forward with a dire warning that the mental health of our youth is endangered by the unchecked, unmonitored and continual use of social media. I suspect that more than anything many of our youth are caught in a web of loneliness, confusion and anger that they do not even understand. Instead of being physically active, interacting with others and seeing reality through an unfiltered and unbiased lens, they are feeling alienated from a normal existence. They witness the divisions and wars and rancor and distrust everyone. The cocktail of cynicism and hopelessness becomes their addictive brew. 

I know many adults who have realized that much of social media is an endless loop of fantasy or anger and in self defense they have taken a break from it and may never return. Perhaps we would all do well to temper our addiction to checking to see if anyone has responded positively to our posts or tweets or comments online. Many are abandoning the chatter of sound and fury for walks outside, opportunities to help others, meaningful work to be done. They are seeking real people that do not drain their emotions. 

If there is anything that we really need to make great again it is the lovely habit of embracing one another with joy and love. We should all be pushing ourselves out of our rooms, out of the darkness and into the sunshine that has always been waiting for us. If we know someone who has been reticent to get fully back into life, we would do well to invite that person to come along with us. If a wounded soul need help doing so, then we should be happy to help them. There is life beyond Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X. Go out and live it.