2/6/15 RMB Best Words

2/6/15 RMB Best Words

Dear Rita Mae Brown,

Once in a while the feeling that you’re missing something grows and it’s like gazing at a picture in search of Waldo. You know there’s something there, you just can’t put your finger on it, yet.

Yesterday I listened to a discussion on NPR about an upcoming meeting scheduled on hate crimes. The guests were members of a task force from the local authorities, and a gentleman whose brother was killed after 9/11. His family are Sikhs. They are a peaceful people who have both been slaughtered by and mistaken for Muslims. For looking different, dressing differently and speaking with an accent, this man’s brother was killed.

His brother’s death brought him knowledge and gave him a voice in assisting his own community to overcome prejudice. Now he teaches of the laws he learned. When one man said that transgressions against him occur all the time and asked “How often can we call the police?” His response was, “If we don’t report it, it won’t end.”

This is America, where one is free to be who they are without persecution. That is the idyll we strive towards.

A child hearing an accent or seeing a person dressed differently, will immediately become curious, wanting to know, why do you talk like that? Why do you dress that way? At what point does curiosity turn sinister? At what age do we teach that everything different is bad?

There I go again, highlighting a negative to find a positive. I’d like to point out the beauty of the today’s sunrise and simply state, let’s all get along. Different can be interesting and fun. Maybe someday I will. For today, those statements alone don’t seem to hold enough impact. Those words alone don’t reveal that the opposite can be deadly.

Still hunting for the best words, the ones that help us be our best, I know they are there, I just haven’t found them, yet.

Enjoying our differences,

Loraine