Here\u2019s how I know I just had an \u201cAHA\u201d moment while on my errands. Alone, in the car, I exclaimed aloud, \u201cAh-ha! So THAT\u2019s how ordinarily wonderful and typically kind people tolerate bullying at so many levels.\u201d
\nI drove past the house we just moved out of. In the midst of packing I noted no longer were there appointments to \u201cshow the house.\u201d I asked my landlord if the property had been rented. \u201cYes.\u201d She happily answered and provided more information than I had asked, \u201cTwo gay guys from California.\u201d
\nI didn\u2019t hear it then. But I heard it today. It would have given me pause if she had said, \u201cTwo heterosexual brunettes from New York,\u201d or, \u201cTwo obese gals from Gartonville, Alabama.\u201d I would have thought it odd. Or maybe even taken exception to the description.
\nWe don\u2019t feel compelled to say, \u201cTwo ordinary white people from two counties over are moving in here,\u201d but it would naturally be offered, \u201cSome black people are going to live here.\u201d
\nI caught a snippit of a Donald Trump interview the other day. He was talking about the Presidential bid that he hasn\u2019t declared he\u2019s making. In that context he concluded that the only thing positive he could say about our President was that \u201che got elected.\u201d In a sarcastic aside he said, \u201cI\u2019d like to be able to say he\u2019s the best President since Abraham Lincoln\u2026\u201d Really? Not George Washington, not John Adams? No, he picked the president famed for acknowledging the rights of citizenship of the African American population. Here\u2019s how racism and bigotry slip into conversation. Out of 43 presidents he offhandedly references the one most known for racial emancipation when discussing the first black president.
\nA compassionate, self-proclaimed, deeply committed Christian wrote a note over a stranger\u2019s blog (which she had to copy and paste) casting extraordinary doubt on the President\u2019s birth place and the authenticity of his social security number. Since it showed up on my Facebook page I asked my kind friend to be more cautious of her sources. Her answer? It didn\u2019t get debunked on SNOPES so it must be real. The commentary contained some of the most racist, vilifying, denigrating assertions I have yet to see about any seated politician. All I could do was write back, \u201cI\u2019m just saying to be careful.\u201d
\nBe careful. Be careful about those leaks in our souls that let the dirty, contaminated groundwater of Pre-Judging seep, weep and flood in to our experiences.<\/p>\n
So a circus huckster starts shouting AGAIN that our President is not a citizen and the leader of the free world has to reduce to saying, “Here. See. I’m telling the truth. Love my country. Here’s my birth certificate, stamped and everything.” So now Donald Trump (previously referenced, rather harshly on my part, as a circus huckster) is suggesting the President was a poor student (yep, every poor student gets to be Editor of the Law Review) (note: sarcasm). Because a man with abashedly weird hair is a celebrity, does his nonsense really command thinking people’s attention? And is this not bullying on a magnificent scale?
\nI was contemplating releasing a new venue of my work\u2026not my own work but the wise words of others. I was going to put a call out for \u201cWise Guys\u201d and \u201cWise Women.\u201d It didn\u2019t set right for me and asked myself, \u201cWhy?\u201d Isn\u2019t wisdom simple enough? Words, wise and impacting, have their own merit apart from whether a man or a woman said them. My objection was immediate. \u201cYes, but so many quotes are attributed to me, just like so much of the art in a museum is created by a man.\u201d As a female writer and artist, I am aware and sensitive to this issue.
\nWhat I realized was this: setting up a differential just gives further quarter to the separation of the sexes. Them. Us. Wisdom, as a category, is going to be a \u201cwe\u201d in my use. Because to create the boundary is to begin to open the cracks of my soul for accidental, slippery, pre-established judgements.
\nSo here is how \u201cgood people\u201d allow bullying to go unchecked. Because bullying occurs in those places of separation. Of distinguishing THEY are not We. Their beliefs aren\u2019t as viable as mine.
\nWhen it\u2019s a \u201cWe,\u201d or an \u201cUs,\u201d that is being bullied before our very eyes, we are likely to protect, stand up, defend. When it\u2019s a \u201cnot us,\u201d or a \u201cthem,\u201d it becomes more acceptable to just stand and watch. To justify that \u201cnature is taking its course,\u201d by saying bullying is just part of the childhood experience, or maybe she said something to deserve it, or maybe he is just teasing.
\nMaybe not. The more we define by what makes us so different the greater the likelihood that we will not grasp that we are one. One of a group of citizens, One human inhabitant of the planet, one breathing creature among the many living things. One of the many. The many of US. Aha.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here\u2019s how I know I just had an \u201cAHA\u201d moment while on my errands. Alone, in the car, I exclaimed aloud, \u201cAh-ha! So THAT\u2019s how ordinarily wonderful and typically kind people tolerate bullying at so many levels.\u201d I drove past the house we just moved out of. In the midst of packing I noted no…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[87,89,86,88],"class_list":["post-419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-joys","category-unexpected","tag-birth-certificate","tag-bullying","tag-donald-trump","tag-president-obamas-birth-certificate"],"yoast_head":"\n