How liberals move forward
This is a good time for honest reflection about what you believe. I believe in the durability of the system outlined in the U.S. Constitution. I believe that national document will continue to provide the foundation for expanding human rights.
I believe in the basic goodness of people and the power of a benevolent creator to bring out the best in all of us.
I believe we need to focus on our shared values because it is too easy to fall into the trap of blaming each other. Or more specifically, of blaming “the other.”
“Xenophobia” is dictio nary.com’s word of the year based on spikes in look-ups related to the Brexit vote, the Syrian refugee crisis, transgender rights and — of course — the U.S. presidential election.
The word is defined as “fear or hatred of foreigners, people from different cultures, or strangers.”
It’s an international trend — and a scary one. In the past, it has led humanity down some very, very sinister roads.
Interest in the word spiked in the United States in June, after President Obama described Donald Trump’s rhetoric as “nativism or xenophobia.”
Some people learned a new word. But the concept is not new. Nor is the strategy of using scapegoats to build personal power by justifying hatred of those who look, speak or worship differently.
“Despite being chosen as the 2016 Word of the Year, xenophobia is not to be celebrated,” says the dictionary.com website. “Rather it’s a word to reflect upon deeply in the light of the events of the recent past.”
Here are some events I found to reflect upon.
There was a construction worker doing a job near our house.
He was a blond and burly guy who didn’t look like he would understand much of the Spanish being spoken as my husband and two nephews struggled with a huge chunk of concrete that had to come out of the hole before the new fence post could go in by our back gate.
It wasn’t his problem or his job. But he came over to have a look. Then he told them to wait while he got a jackhammer off his truck.
Score one for the goodness of people.
There was the butcher in the grocery story who talked to me about the after-Thanksgiving turkey I decided to buy.
I was thrilled with the reduced price and told him I was making a dinner
with all the fixings for my niece and her family who were coming up from Mexico that weekend.
He seemed interested, so I went on. I explained that we had celebrated Thanksgiving with my nephew in Flagstaff, but came home without any leftovers. This 19-pound turkey would fix that.
He told me to wait and he went through those flimsy swinging doors to the back room.
He returned with a 50 percent off coupon and stuck it on my turkey, making it even cheaper. “My gift to you,” he said.
Score two for the goodness of people.
There was the woman who stopped her car when she saw a limping dog by the side of the road. She lured the animal to her, then called my future son-inlaw, who’d been desperately looking for his dog for days after a house guest accidentally left a door open.
The woman had no idea who would answer when she called the number on the dog’s collar. She had the courage to be compassionate. She took time to be kind to a stranger.
OK. Sure. Some people will dismiss these little things as trivial and unimportant.
I see them as reaffirmations of human nature and the power every one of us has to make the world better.
It’s been called “trickle-up decency.”
I like the Biblical description better: “And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13).
A lot of people did not believe that a misogynistic man who made fun of the disabled and was beloved by the KKK could become president of this country.
But it happened. Liberals can’t afford to remain in shock.
What we do now will determine what we become as individuals and as a country.
We need to look each other in the eyes and remember our shared humanity. We also need to honor and defend the very American idea that our nation’s diversity of people, ideas and beliefs is a strength, not a weakness.
I believe in the basic goodness of people and the power of a benevolent creator to bring out the best in all of us.