Out of Touch

For the last couple of years I’ve been off balance. I thought I was part of the majority. I was much surprised to learn that I’m not in the mainstream. I thought that Americans were kind and good and tolerant. Now I find that tolerance is no longer a staple of our national diet. We’re consuming more and more junk food. Conduct that I would have considered laughable and sophomoric is now considered appropriate in polite society.

What I once considered to be scientific fact has now been declared fiction. Though the weather worldwide appears to be becoming more and more extreme and storms are more frequent and devastating, nothing has changed. No action is needed. It’s just the natural cycle. We don’t need to plan such disasters. The international scientific community is mistaken. None of these threats is being exacerbated by people. There is no need for international concern about climate change.

What we should be worried about is the influx of foreigners who are fleeing the intolerable conditions of their homelands. Forget about the history of previous migrations of the Irish, Chinese, Germans and Scandinavians who flocked to our shores during the last two centuries bringing their strange languages and food. All of us became Americans by immigration. Even the Native Americans got here by making a long pilgrimage from their place of origin.

Those earlier immigrants came with few belongings, but had the desire to make a better life for their families. They learned the language, worked long hours for low wages and sent their children to the public schools. Most of us now are only a few generations removed from our own ancestors who walked off ships and registered at Ellis Island. There is currently huge interest in seeking out those ancestors. My siblings are sending in their test kits and getting the reports back that show what we knew all along. We came from a variety of places in Europe. Our roots are not from this continent, but our ancestors chose this place because they hoped it would provide opportunities that were not available in their home villages. They came here and adapted to a new culture and language.

Over the years other immigrants to this country suffered at the hands of those who had arrived in previous decades. There was persecution of the Irish, Italians, Chinese, and other groups who came here seeking prosperity. Most of them came by choice, but some came because they were captured and sold into slavery or arrived as indentured servants. Our ancestors survived and thrived in spite of the slurs and poor treatment they received. They took the lowest level jobs and worked their way up. Eventually they became shop owners, union workers, doctors and lawyers.

It appeared that the assimilation had begun to level out and we were accepting each other as Americans. Then the towers fell. Since September 11, 2001 we’ve become paranoid. We fear and distrust anyone who is not of our immediate community. That mistrust prevents us from living with the spirit of generosity and optimism that we shared before 9/11.

Now we behave with suspicion of anyone who is different. Instead of giving one another the benefit of the doubt, we’ve adopted the “my way or the highway” approach to human relations. Now bullying, road rage, mass shootings and protests are rampant. We call ourselves a “Christian” nation, but ignore Christ’s admonition to love our neighbors as ourselves and to turn the other cheek. We claim the banner of Christianity, but don’t practice its tenets. We’ve regressed to the Old Testament law of an eye for an eye while discarding the teaching of the One who came fulfill the law by showing God’s love and forgiveness to all.

I didn’t think we were like that, but it seems that I’m out of touch with mainstream America.