Us vs. Them

I have been finding it difficult to respond in a skillful and compassionate way to many of the recent attacks, mostly coming from the right wing of American politics, both in public and made against me personally in response to some of my posts.

As examples:

• Elizabeth Dole runs an ad in her senate campaign accusing her opponent of being in league with “godless Americans.”
• Senator Kit Bond critiqued Barack Obama because Senator Obama wants to appoint judges who “have a heart, have an empathy [sic] for the teenage mom, the minority, the gay, the disabled. We want them to show empathy. We want them to show compassion.” http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/10/30/politics/fromtheroad/entry4558204.shtml?tag=rightRail;rightRailInner
• Sarah Palin has begun to attack Barack Obama because he attended a party for a fellow faculty member at the University of Chicago who happened to be Palestinian and disagrees with the unconditional support offered to Israel by the United States.
• “Joe the Plumber” claims, effectively, that Barack Obama has more volunteers because liberals do not work as hard as conservatives and therefore have more time on their hands.
• Keith Olberman nominates a “Worst Person in the World” prize every night on his news show.


My reaction to all of the above, as well as numerous other examples of the “us vs. them” line of attack is disgust. Indeed, I have such a strong reaction that I must limit my intake of the news lest my anger boil over and I say things I will later regret.

Of course, I think my reaction is natural, because all of these statements define me as one of “them” – the other to be feared. As a Buddhist who does not accept the idea of a God, I am certainly “godless.”

As a person who worked for years in the criminal justice system, I certainly think judges should be compassionate within the bounds of the law. After all, if the law were mechanical we would put automatons on the bench rather then attempt to put our best legal minds there.

I certainly disagree with unconditional support of Israel and think that we should be doing far more to help Palestinian moderates. In point of fact, I find the McCain’s campaign of disparagement of anyone who happens to be an Arab American and associated with Barack Obama to be racist.

Finally, the only reason I have not done more to work for Senator Obama and Mark Udall (running for senate in my home state of Colorado) is the amount of time I must devote to my job.

I pay my taxes, keep my front lawn in reasonable shape, and do my best to raise my son to be the best person he can be. So what makes me scary?

On the other side of the political spectrum, I am sure Mr. Olberman alienates anyone who happens to agree with that evenings “worst person” nominee.

We can see the spiral of fear to anger to hate escalating here. The saying of the Buddha, “hatred does not cease through hatred at any time. Hatred ceases through love. This is an unalterable law.” Has many counterparts in the Abrahamic faiths, yet we never seem to learn this lesson.

Our greatest leaders have never appealed to our fear and hate; they have appealed to our better natures.

FDR’s stirring “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

Abraham Lincoln said “I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.” and at the close of the long bitter Civil War,

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

I truly despair for my country when we do not seem to hold charity to be a civic and social virtue, not just an individual virtue; when we engage in fear mongering solely to gain power. We must see that we are all interconnected and that the suffering of any one person leads to the suffering of us all. A foreclosure on someone else’s home drives down the value of mine; the failure to provide universal health insurance drives up my costs; the failure to provide decent food housing, education and jobs with a living wage drives up crime. Yet, our political leaders, when given a choice between stepping out into a new day, or withdrawing into a locked and dark room, huddling in fear, they choose the later.

We need to show the courage and hope that we will step out into the sunshine of a new day. Sure there may be rain or snow, but to stay huddled in the darkness is the path of misery and suffering screaming at each other because not stepping out is obviously the fault of “them.”

If we reject our fear we can move forward and move on beyond fear, to a bigger, greater compassionate nation.