We are a land of equality and diversity
On the weekend of Feb. 4-5, someone painted three swastikas at one of our parks here in Thousand Oaks. Shortly thereafter, headstones were toppled at Jewish cemeteries in Philadelphia and St. Louis.
Why the desecration? Painting a few crude swastikas probably didn’t require much effort, but toppling headstones?
And why this expression of hatred in a nation devoted, imperfectly I’m sure, to diversity? Doesn’t the lady who lifts “her lamp beside the golden door” say, “send me your tired, your weak, your heavy laden, yearning to breathe free?” Wasn’t that promise meant to be extended to people of all races, colors and religions?
Periods of prejudice against various races appear to fluctuate with the times, but anti-Semitism seems to have been a constant for 2,000 years. I understand it stems from the Christian charge of Jewish leaders calling for the death of Jesus, but the Pope and other Christian leaders have apologized for and disowned that position. Why the persistence?
Psychologists would probably tell us that some people have a need for scapegoats if disappointed by life. On his deathbed, former segregationist and Mississippi senator Theodore G. Bilbo is reported to have said, “I don’t hate Negroes, but poor whites have to have someone to look down on.” Really? Is life a teeter-totter? For me to be up, others have to be down? I don’t believe so.
Whatever the cause, the evidence is clear that Americans — especially Americans — should reject anti-Semitism and any other racial or religious prejudice. It goes against our founding principles: the equality proclaimed by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence and the promise of free expression and equality before law in the Bill of Rights.
Prejudice causes hatred — hatred that does great harm to our people. It harms the hater, the hated and our society in general.
The hater becomes taken up in negativity, embittering him and absorbing his time and energy. The hated becomes uncomfortable and fearful, causing him unease by having to be constantly on guard. And our society suffers by not only being untrue to its promise, but by having to cope with the product of this hatred: defacement, violence, even murder.
Lincoln was so distressed by the anomaly of prejudice appearing in our land — a land dedicated to equality— that he said if our nation would countenance prejudice, “I should prefer to emigrate to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty, (a country in which) despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.”
When I was a boy, I heard America was a melting pot. I don’t particularly care for the analogy. We don’t want to melt people down to be all the same; we want to appreciate and venerate their diversity.
Prejudice is not only wrong, harmful and destructive, it is also counterproductive. One would have to go to great lengths to be true to his prejudices. Consider anti-Semitism, for example. Would he refrain from taking the Salk vaccine to prevent polio? Would he not watch Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music”? Would he reject Einstein’s theory of relativity or the contributions to psychology of Sigmund Freud?
Clearly our country has been greatly enriched by influences from people of all creeds and colors, from every corner of the Earth. We should glory in our diversity and celebrate the richness it has given our society.
So let us reverse expressions of prejudice. Destroying headstones is desecration. Desecration means to deface, to defame, to dishonor. Instead, let’s do the opposite. Instead of desecrate, let’s consecrate, let’s hallow, let’s glorify, let’s bless.
Let’s thank God for this wonderful land and all of its people.
Ed Jones, of Thousand Oaks, is a member of the Conejo Recreation and Park District board and was recently named Citizen of the Year by the Thousand Oaks Elks Lodge.