It is very disturbing to see the streets of the cities in our country erupt yet again in violence. This seems to be the third or fourth summer in a row now where some unimaginable event has caused civil disturbance. While the right to free speech and peaceful assembly are ingrained in our constitution and deeply rooted in our historical consciousness, reasonableness and rationality are always key to healthy and positive public discourse. While it is important that we pray for peace on our streets and an end to violence and bloodshed, we also all need to be measured in our own words and actions in these matters.
Cardinal DiNardo, president of the US Catholic Conference of Bishops issued the following statement on behalf of the conference: “We stand against the evil of racism, white supremacy and neo-nazism. We stand with our sisters and brothers united in the sacrifice of Jesus, by which love's victory over every form of evil is assured. At Mass, let us offer a special prayer of gratitude for the brave souls who sought to protect us from the violent ideology displayed yesterday. Let us especially remember those who lost their lives. Let us join their witness and stand against every form of oppression.”
While we do not experience such overt violence in our immediate area, there are still troubling signs of discrimination ever present within our communities.
Much of it starts in school. All of our schools have incidents of bullying. Some cases get pretty severe and manage to make the news, but many situations are able to be handled more quietly or are just pushed under the rug.
We also see the problems with road rage and arguments over parking spaces and people cutting lines or generally ignoring good manners and social protocol. We need to be careful in setting good example for our children and grandchildren. We will always have disagreements, diverse opinions, and yes, various forms of bigotry. All of us, regardless of who we are, carry certain biases with us. When those biases clash with those of others, we can become indignant. Part of the problem is that we always see our perspective as the “right” one and the other perspective as the “wrong” one. In fact there are certain objective truths that we ought to keep, but as objective truth seems to be less recognized these days, we end up with a strong relativism, and the clash of relativist ideas is very difficult to reconcile.
I guess my point is simply that we need to take the time to reflect upon our own personal biases and perspectives, to measure them against the truth of the Gospel and the teaching of the Church, and allow ourselves to be challenged to growth in those areas where we come up wanting. It isn’t easy, but then personal growth never is.
We need to find a middle ground of national dialogue, but neither political party has the courage to get it done.