Who wouldn\u2019t love to be able to change something with just one action, say, snap your fingers and the red light turns green, or blink your eyes and the sun is shining, or make a wish and you\u2019re on your way to Hawaii?<\/p>\n
Me? I\u2019d been hoping that writing just one column could bring our country back. You know, the country where we didn\u2019t threaten one another, or call the other guy an idiot, or where the president didn\u2019t make fun of people. Just one thing, I keep thinking, and it\u2019ll all turn around.<\/p>\n
What the heck\u2019s going on? It seems we\u2019re at each other\u2019s throats with rage. What are we doing to each other?<\/p>\n
For some time I had talked myself into believing the atmosphere of hatred and disrespect we hear so much about in D.C, only existed in this specific vicinity. It swirls around television channels, is trumpeted on bumper stickers and yard signs, emanates from the mouths of some in Congress and stains posters that are marked-over. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Behavior stemming from the president\u2019s brash remarks and his call to end political correctness can\u2019t be as bad elsewhere as it seems here, surely.<\/p>\n
But on our trips back home to Illinois I began to ask cab drivers and wheelchair assistants, usually immigrants, I\u2019d encounter in the airports if they were experiencing disrespect, and the unfortunate answer was, \u201cYes.\u201d And as my wife and I talked to teachers about incidents at school, and to family back in Illinois, I began to see it is all too real.<\/p>\n
The national eruption of hate and mutual distrust is not just sad, it\u2019s tearing the fabric of our society apart. Why are we doing this to one another?<\/p>\n
Part of it stems from Russia\u2019s evil manipulation, taking our national original sin – slavery and the vicious racism that has stemmed from it – and gouging that disabling wound to Russia\u2019s advantage. Using Facebook and Twitter, Russia manufactured racist \u2018stories,\u2019 \u2018events\u2019 and \u2018users\u2019 out of thin air, convinced us they were real, then weaponized them to ricochet across this \u201csocial media,\u201d churning our emotions to a boiling point. Our division at this moment in history, sad to say, is concrete evidence that Russia\u2019s gambit has worked.<\/p>\n
But the guy who\u2019s the other half of this problem lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., and he\u2019s not into the respect we were taught as kids.<\/p>\n
Usually, the leader of our country is sort of like our national uncle, the guy who shows you how it\u2019s done, our representative to the world, our guide in times of trial. But we\u2019ve never had a national uncle who says it\u2019s ok to be unkind, to say bad things about other people, to call people names, to make fun of them, to lie.<\/p>\n
Imagine your grandson is out playing ball and somebody yells at him, \u201cHey four eyes, where\u2019d you get that stupid face?\u201d Or your Mom is taunted, \u201cGet out of my way, grandma!\u201d It would make you (and me) furious.<\/p>\n
We know things like that are happening, and mostly it\u2019s race and nationality that are the points of each personal attack.\u00a0 Non-white workers and technicians tell me, yes, they\u2019ve experienced hateful words.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Here they are in the country that\u2019s been the pinnacle of freedom for the world, the place they, and your own great grandparents, grandparents or parents fought hard to win passage to; and many fought hard to defend. And someone out of nowhere, insults them with hateful words, just because of who they are. Because the haters feel they can.<\/p>\n
At school, kids are being bullied, because of their strange-sounding last names or the color or their skin.\u00a0 Shoved, because the shover knows he can; after all, we have a national leader who gave him\/her the example that told them, it\u2019s ok to be unkind, disrespectful, even brutal.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
It\u2019s become so bad that the American Association of School Administrators, which represents local school superintendents, devoted an entire issue<\/a> of their magazine to focus on how school leaders can handle the lack of civility they have to contend with in their school districts.<\/p>\n It broke my heart to learn that, all over this vast, wonderful country, kids are being unkind to one another at what\u2019s supposed to be a sanctuary of safety, their school, and that parents are being picked on.<\/p>\n Not long after our president\u2019s \u201cshit hole countries\u201d remark, I was being pushed in a wheelchair to our airport departure gate in Virginia. I asked where my assistant – remember they often depend on tips – where she was from, and she told me she came from Ghana, in Africa.<\/p>\n I said, \u201cI want to apologize to you for what our president said.\u201d Tears began to fill her eyes. \u201cThank you,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the thing about all this. People are being hurt.<\/p>\n I write to Speaker Paul Ryan, because he\u2019s third in line to the presidency, and I tell him he needs to say something. Kids and families are being hurt, I tell him, \u201cbecause of the words of this president, and you, sir, say nothing?\u201d <\/p>\n Every day someone is harmed. This is not normal. <\/p>\n Hatred is wrong. Ridicule is wrong. Lying is wrong. <\/p>\n Killing, is wrong.<\/p>\n The thing is, we\u2019re not going to survive as the \u201cleader of the free world,\u201d if we attack one another. Our neighborhoods and towns, schools and cities will rupture.<\/p>\n We have to look at ourselves in the mirror, and ask that question. Do I want to see hatred, like my expression, stare back at me? Or do you want, long for, a smile. Let\u2019s try to get back to the Golden Rule<\/a> we were taught as children – Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.<\/p>\n Come on, America, let\u2019s start being one people again, use the Golden Rule. Because the United States is us, just as it reads on our coins – E Pluribus Unum – One, out of many. We, together, from all the nations on this Earth, make this country great. <\/p>\n Respect, and we can be a guiding light. Hate, and our Statue of Liberty\u2019s light will begin to quiver and slowly fade away; her purpose, extinguished.<\/p>\n ##<\/p>\n \u2014To see what our own national hatred of “others” has spiraled into in earlier decades, look up:<\/p>\n and the German-Americans<\/a>, and<\/p>\n
\narrests of Italian-Americans<\/a>,<\/p>\n