Judgments, Wisdom and Voting

I was in a store in Leadville, CO a few weeks ago. Ahead of me in the checkout line was what appeared to be a family – a very cute little boy about 18 months old and his parents.

The parents were not the picture of middle American values. Both were what could charitable called hippies, or their close Colorado cousins, Rainbow People. They wore their hair in long, dirty dreadlocks. Their clothes were patchwork and tattered. They did not appear to be on a fast track to corporate success, in other words. Just as clearly, they were intelligent, kind and gentle. They appeared to be well educated. They appeared to be both mentally and physically healthy. Generally this lifestyle would not bother me. If they want to live on the margins and get off the hamster wheel that so many folks are on, then more power to them. This would be fine by me, except that they were paying for their food with food stamps.

I immediately snapped into judgment mode. Here I am breaking my butt to make a living and pay taxes so that they can avoid work. They looked way too unconventional to be successful in a job interview. They clearly would not be allowed to work at any job that required customer interaction. In other words, I was subsidizing their lifestyle choice while they deliberately avoided work.

I have meditated a bit on this since I saw these folks. First, it was the encounters I have had with the judgmental mind set of so many so-called Christians that was one of the precipitating events for my journey to Buddhism. It is so easy to simply look at someone and feed the beasts of stereotypes and prejudices. Second, I know from my prior work with the poor that all is not as it seems on the surface. So often people who appear to be healthy are not. Third, I forgot where I was. Fairplay Colorado is not a place with a booming economy. It has been stripped of resources and left for naught by the economic powers that rule the United States.

The simple fact of the matter is that I took a very brief chance encounter on a weekend, in a town with poor prospects of employment, and spun out a tale of how these people were lazy bums leaching off my hard work based on nothing more then my own stereotypes.

When we use stereotypes like this, in a judgmental way, we think in the most unmindful, unwise and uncompassionate way. Mindfulness, wisdom and compassion require us to know what the actual facts are; what is actually true, not on what we assume to be the case. Perforce, when we think in this unmindful, unwise, uncompassionate way, we then act in unmindful and uncompassionate ways. We ignore those in needs around us. In this election year, we vote for candidates that appeal to the worst in us. These candidates appeal to our greed, our prejudice, our bigotry and stereotypes. Our world thus spirals down, because we do not, as a society, assist the poor, educate the ignorant or practice peace.

In this election year, I beg readers to meditate on this. Does this candidate appeal to the best in me – my compassion and my wisdom? Does this candidate appeal to the worst in me – my bigotry (against gays, Latinos, immigrants, Muslims, or the poor)? Will my vote give rise to a more compassionate society?