Teach Children Values Of Helping, Caring, Loving
Dear Jennifer: God bless you for your enlightening and soul-searching piece on the difference between racism and reverse discrimination.
Our son recently married a beautiful, vivacious, bright and ambitious young woman who is black and white while he is white. We couldn’t bring ourselves to share the news of the engagement with friends and family for a full year, while secretly hoping they would break up. Of course, “now that we know her,” we feel differently!
It’s hard to figure out, even now, why we had such feelings. I’m sure we felt he was putting himself and his future children into a “lower class.” God forgive us all for feeling superior to any other of his people.
Your discrimination test should be nailed to the wall of every church, school, business and home in America. - Mae (from Spokane)
Dear Jennifer: I believe that racism is one of the most serious problems our nation faces. I still see on shows like Donahue comments out of Nazi Germany - they sound well-rehearsed, plausible, superior.
When I recognized the people who had helped me find my values, I felt that they had great wisdom. I have come to realize that one cannot have great wisdom without a love for their fellow man that transcends every bias.
Wisdom is rare because hate is easy, but love is hard.
What can we do about this problem? Opposition is counterproductive. We have to find a way for our young people to come in contact with people of great wisdom. - Carl
Dear Mae and Carl: Mae, your letter is beautiful. Somehow you kept your heart open even when challenged.
Carl, you are right, opposition is counterproductive and I should remember that every time I take the bait that arrives on my desk in various envelopes.
I decided today to reflect, as both of you have, on where I had gained the most wisdom about values. I can recall some of the moments easily. It is as if they were burned into my heart in some unique way. They all seem like things we could give our children.
The first memories are of adults rescuing animals in distress. Something about the human willingness to go to great lengths to rescue a chick while at the same time planning to kill a chicken. I was raised on a small farm so the contrast was vivid. I learned something about responsibility for protecting life, in its smallest forms.
The next is of washing dishes at a church potluck and feeling part of something bigger than me. I was a lonely child so the comradeship of women cleaning up was attractive to me; it still is. I learned that if you help out, people will join you.
Then I remember the first teachers who saw my individuality beneath my unkempt and poor appearance. Some just took time to talk to me: Mr. Luden in the fifth grade. Some gave me special attention: Mrs. Chambers in the sixth grade. I learned I had value and that there were adults who cared.
Then in high school, I had a teacher, Jerry Naimy, who radiated love from every pore of his being. I couldn’t even name it until years later. In our humanities class he gave me a book on slavery to read, and I understood something fundamental that I would never have discovered reading the “Black Stallion” books I loved.
I had never seen an African American when I read that book. I did not meet any people of color until I went to college.
The wisdom of caring for animals, helping each other, taking an interest in children, loving humanity, got me out of high school in one piece.
Then, as I slipped into middle-age, classical music and opera. When Beverly Sills sings Manon from Massenet, Mozart, or the love songs from “The Barber of Seville,” the beauty is so intense that I know, in my bones, this is a world of love. When I am in the garden, I know that man’s inhumanity to man is not nature.
Every one of us can teach children these values: caring, helping, loving, thinking, beauty, nature. It is enough wisdom for a lifetime. - Jennifer
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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Jennifer James The Spokesman-Review