Essay 26: Where is Our Humanity?

I’ll admit it: I’ve been living in a cocoon while at Millay. I have limited my interaction with the news, more so than usual. In the interest of self-care, I tell myself. Too much tragedy weighs heavy on me. And Lord knows that there’s no shortage of that in this country. But there’s a line between self-preservation and simply opting out, dodging any kind of responsibility as a citizen, as a human being. I refuse to opt-out.

I just watched the clip of Stephen Colbert commenting on Jeff Sessions and Sessions’s use of the Bible to defend the inhumane acts of tearing children away from their parents. This use of the Bible is offensive. It is a prime example of how people can shape anything to support their beliefs, no matter their moral code of ethics (or therelack of). Colbert makes a fine point –and outstanding point—of continuing on with that passage Sessions quoted:

"'But if he just read a little bit further into Romans 13:10, 'Love thy neighbor as thyself. Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.'"

I am grateful for Colbert using his public platform to take a stand, to call on our nation to take action –and that he did so without hedging. He said it plain: call your elected representatives and demand that they do something to stop this. 

What is the world we live in? When will people take action? When it finally happens to them? That’s the likely scenario. Look at the school shootings. Children –and I mean kids who were mostly single digit ages—were murdered at Sandy Hook and nothing changed. You’d think the horror of that would propel some catalyst toward change. Nope. The Parkland students are sounding the rallying cry –they are touring the nation— and will not stop until something happens, until significant change actually happens. I hope they are successful.

What does it take for our humanity to come forward? How can we create an environment that allows for people to release their fear –because, really, that’s what this is: fear—and to see that what we are doing is not who we truly are? An environment that allows us to really see each other and to know that there is abundance, that there is love that is endless and available to all?

I don’t know the answers to these questions but I’m willing to do what it takes to work towards some version of this. Even if it’s just one person at a time. Don’t get it twisted: I’m not looking to change people. I am only hoping to create awareness and for folks to open their eyes and to really see with their hearts.

The breaking apart of families devastates me. I try to imagine what it would feel like if someone were to take my kids away from me, under the guise of “we’re just going to give them a bath” and then never return them to me. I can’t imagine. The pain is too great to fathom. So please, call your representatives and demand humanity, demand love as fulfilment of the law.