I started my professional career as a high school teacher in an all girls' Catholic High School here in Cleveland. As you might imagine, some of your time as a teacher was spent as a referee in the battles that took place between best friends, worst enemies and the whole range of possible relationships in between. When things had really degraded to the depths of misunderstanding, I would often try to move the participants to a "higher ground" by reminding them that they were "better than this" and that they needed to "show what they were really made of". Gratefully, I found that appealing to what is best in people usually worked and I could at least get them in their respective corners if not talking once again.
WE ARE BETTER THAN THIS. We are better than the cheap shots, condescending manners, and downright mean spirited tantrums that have become part of our "discourse". We CAN disagree about a topic without becoming enemies, without the mudslinging, without the personal barbs. Degrading someone into submission is not winning, it is simply another definition of rape -- pure and simple. And that is not America at it's best.
Making someone else look small does not make us bigger. It simply makes us appear larger. But illusion is always illusion regardless of how many people believe in it.
1 comment:
Namaste to you Liz and your hardworking partners!
I feel fortunate to live and work in environments that allow my psyche to dwell in a state of ignorance about the evils in the world. I blissfully flit through my days, smiling, happy that all is right with the world. Then, without warning, I am jarred out of my self-imposed nirvana by shouts of anger and hurtful words. Who are these people that have disturbed my inner peace? Must they be so loud?
Then I look at these people. Really look at them. Is it a husband and wife who have grown apart so much that they hate each other? Is it the class bully who has learned these behaviors from an overbearing and abusive father? Does the bully even have a father? Is it a bitter woman who was abandoned by her husband when their three young children were not yet going to school? Are these educated people or uneducated people? Are these people monetarily wealthy or are they barley scraping by on welfare? It is all of these people and more. I can’t fix every broken person that I come in contact with but I try. Smile. Speak gently. Actions speak louder than words. We ARE better than this.
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