We must demonstrate love to all people
Over 50 years ago, when Jeannette Rankin (the first woman in Congress) was in her mid-80s, she told me “One of the more trying things about growing old is having to fight the same battles again and again.”
I am now in my mid-80s and I am getting tired ─ tired of racism, sexism, discrimination, elitism, jingoism, nativism, and the hypocrisy of elected leaders in our nation’s capital and throughout our states, counties, cities, and towns. Too many of the foregoing are acting as though the current demonstrations in our major cities are something new. And, what is even worse, they behave as though they don’t know why those people are acting the way they are. Duh!
Fifty-two years ago The Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorder issued its 426-page document also known as the Kerner Report. The commission was appointed by President Johnson to investigate the causes of riots in American cities that had begun in 1965. The civil unrest was spawned in black and Latino communities. The report was the result of a seven-month investigation.
The report chastised “federal and state governments for failed housing, education, social services policies” and the media, which was locked in a “white perspective.” The report also alleged that “white racism” was the primary cause for riots in the ghettos.
Probably the most damning observation in the report was “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black and one white ─ separate and unequal.”
The report made several recommendations. Primary among them were for new housing to break-up ghettos, “hire a more diverse and sensitive police force,” invest more in public education, job training, and other social services.
It is my contention that the root causes of today’s riots are the same that were identified in the 1968 Kerner Report. I also maintain that the recommendations the Report made for change remain, by and large, the same.
Should our nation continue to ignore, demean, denigrate, and abuse the basic needs of ALL of our citizens, then the course is set for our internal destruction. It need not be so. Greed must be replaced by compassion for others; hate must be replaced by love; I must be replaced by WE; ignorance must be replaced by knowledge; exclusion must be replaced by inclusion; and those few things must become part and parcel of each of us for the sake of all of us.
In 1620, John Winthrop, an attorney, who would serve for 12 years as the founding governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, preached a sermon to his fellow Puritan immigrants. The sermon, A Model of Christian Charity, spoke of the new world as a “city upon a hill.” The new colony would be a beacon to the world as a godly, just, and charitable place. Thus, the Massachusetts Bay Colony would be an example for all the world to see and emulate.
The thrust of Winthrop’s message was that, as a Christian community, the Puritans must adhere to the principles of Christianity: that is love of God, love of neighbor, love of justice, and love of peace.
Today Americans continue to believe that their nation is the “city on a hill” that all the world should to see and emulate. But is it?
To answer that question we must all pause, reflect, and determine what those things are that tarnish our image in our own sight and in the sight of the rest of the world.
As a white man, I am sorely aware that my whiteness and my maleness have indirectly provided me with privileges that others do not have. I cite specifically women and minorities of all colors and ethnicities.
The 1968 Kerner Report identified causes for unrest that remain true today. They need not remain unsolved and the solution to the eradication of those ills is by taking to heart and acting on the theme of the familiar song, “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.”
As citizens each of must act when we see wrongdoing; speak truth to power; elect decent, ethical, and knowledgeable men and women to public offices; work to eradicate physical and mental ghettos; and, as John Winthrop exhorted, we must demonstrate charity (love) to all people.
Are the foregoing easy tasks? No, but if we care for ourselves, our fellow citizens of all races and creeds, and our nation, we must act or suffer the consequences.
—John C. Board is a retired public school teacher, past president of the Montana Education Association, past interim Executive Director of the Montana Association of Churches, and a retired Deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Montana.