What Kind of People Are We? What Kind of Country Do We Want To Be?

After listening to Colin Powell on Meet the Press a couple of weeks ago, I turned off the TV and sat quietly while Powell’s words rolled again through my mind. Soon the pundits, political parties, and prognosticators would start telling us what we had heard and what it meant. Before that happened, I wanted time to understand for myself what I’d heard and to see where that took my thoughts.

There doesn’t seem to be much self-determination going on these days. Most of us are so inundated with the “he said, she said,” campaign rhetoric pouring mindlessly and endlessly from radios and TVs that the time and silence necessary for personal reflection evaporates. Regardless of which side we are on, we accept the part of all this blather that agrees with our preconceived notions and reject out of hand anything that does not.

There was much food for thought in Powell’s statement. First, of course, were the points each side could cherry pick for use in bolstering their own opinions. But there were other important thoughts expressed that if given some consideration, could prick the conscience and encourage questioning on both sides of the aisle.

When Powell spoke about the 20 year old Muslim-American who gave his life fighting for this country in dramatic contrast to the use of “being a Muslim” as a derogatory slur against Barack Obama it was a wake up call for all of us. It is so reminiscent of what we did to Japanese-Americans during World War II; what Joseph McCarthy did in his anti-communist witch hunt in the 50s; and how we have treated African-Americans and other minorities for decades. It is one thing to make a mistake, it is quite another to make the same mistake over and over.

Have we learned nothing from our past demagogic, reckless and unsubstantiated accusations against whole groups of people? Are the acknowledgements we have made in hindsight about the error of these actions nothing more than hollow words? Do we not see the connection between public attacks on the character or patriotism of others and an aroused mob mentality? If we do not see this connection, perhaps we do not want to see it. For, clearly, it is there to be seen for those who are willing to look.

Too often it seems, we do not differentiate between going after a politician for his stand on an issue and accusing him of a lack of patriotism. And yet these are two very different things. The first is a valid attack against policies and the actions (i.e. votes) that support them. The second is a personal attack against the character of an opponent.

We, individually, are guilty of personal attacks each time we spread unverified information about a candidate - simply hearing something on the news or reading it in an email is not verification of its veracity. Newscasters are guilty when they repeat stories without including facts that refute what was said. And they add to the problem when they compare ads or stump speeches where one is issue based and one is a personal attack. These are not comparable and to present them as if they are is misleading. The candidates themselves are guilty when they repeat the same thing over and over even after they know it has been refuted and when they twist and spin things said by others for their own purposes.

An attack against policy is a valid election campaign tactic. A personal attack is against everything America stands for and against everything Christianity teaches. How can we claim to be Christian and patriotic and still participate in the character assassination of another human being? The answer, of course, is we can’t. And if we continue to undermine our own ethical codes, what kind of people are we and what kind of country will we have?