Conversation Point

People We Know

Among all the disturbing stories to come out of the Iraq War, now into its fifth year, one more, which I heard last week on a syndicated political talk show, chilled me to the bone. Prior to the war, Sunni Muslims and Shi'ites lived side by side in neighborhoods around Iraq in peaceful coexistence. Most people knew their neighbors, but usually didn't concern themselves with categories and labels. Now, four plus years later, the first thing people want to know about each other is whether they are Sunni or Shi'ite because not knowing could kill them.

Please take a moment, right now, to step outside your home and look around at your neighbors' houses. Consider the people who live in your apartment complex or condominium development. What if your life depended on knowing what political party they belonged to? What if your children's future hung on the knowledge of what religious affiliation each of these people claimed? What if their lives depended on knowing if you were a Democrat or a Republican, a Methodist or a Roman Catholic?

We have already started the early rounds of this game of societal Russian roulette. Arabs and Muslims living in the United States, many second or third generation Americans, are being vilified for their heritage and their beliefs, especially when shared openly without remorse or apology. We don't seem to grasp that a few people from a large group do not define the group as a whole. We let our fear take over, let it falsely accuse innocent people and then are shocked to hear on the evening news that well-respected, good citizens have been attacked or killed. Immediately after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centers I personally heard a passerby on the street expressing hatred of all people of Middle Eastern descent, wanting to attack them wherever he could find them. More recently, I have heard serious talk of closing U.S. borders to all Arabs and deporting those who already make their home here. Although the United States did create internment camps for Japanese and German Americans during World War II, the present U.S. leadership seems to have not taken a public step toward that end. Yet.

If we are headed in that direction, there is a Biblical imparative we will have to maneuver ourselves around. "Do not plan harm against your neighbor who lives trustingly beside you (Proverbs 3:29)." This passage from Proverbs has no addendum, no caveat exonerating us on the basis of our neighbor's religious or political affiliations and gives us no excuses based on someone's ethnicity or nation of origin. We also don't get to define the level of harm based on our own tolerance of violence in all its forms. Speaking against someone who lives down the block or across the hall can be as detrimental as attaching a bomb under their car if it means their reputation or morals are unwittingly called into question by someone else. That's where the term "character assassination" comes from.

Neighborhoods are microcosms of larger communities and the world in which we live. Most often we can, and to a certain extent we must, trust ourselves and the people around whom we live, to not plot or carry out harm against each other. Without that basic understanding we find ourselves aligned with the Iraqi people in the most sad and horrific of ways.

Can we do this, live into not plotting harm against each other before it is too late? As President Bush calls for escalation of a war we said no to back in November 2006, as the economy stagnates and gasoline prices soar, as our own people suffer through hurricanes and tornados with little to no federal assistance, tensions are rising. Our choices seem more limited, our patience is strained to its breaking point. Can we let go of our need to blame others, plot against our neighbors whose homes are out our sight, but are still a part of the global community? Our live depend on our ability to do so as surely as if we all lived right next door to each other.

posted by Cory L. Kemp @ 6:56 PM