Think of Your Fellow Man (and Woman)
Earlier this week, one of my neighbors died in a horrific automobile accident on 8th North in Orem, Utah. A truck ran a red light and smashed into a mini-van. My neighbor died instantly. I’m not sure why the truck driver ran the red light, but it is very likely it was partially the result of major construction activities on 8th North (the stoplights are in an awkward location).
I read about the accident on the local newspaper’s website. Unfortunately, the chat-room associated with the article was filled with all kinds of disquieting comments. Most of them surrounded the ethnicity of the truck driver; he has a hispanic name. This seemed to “stir” the immigration controversy. Most of the comments were, from my perspecitve, ugly, whether they were from the left or the right or the center. Somehow to use my neighbor’s untimely death as an excuse to trumpet political and social issues seemed unseamly. Fortunately, at the funeral, the family stated they held no ill will toward anyone.
Also this week a colleague forwarded to me a document titled: “Walking a Mile: A First Step Toward Mutual Understanding.” The document was originally sent by the executive director of a local Indian Tribe. It deals with how Indians and non-Indians view each other. It deal with the evils of stereotyping. To quote the study: “Many Indians believed that non-Indians’ perceptions of them are based on crude stereotypes, and indeed, non-Indians often had a foggy and distorted set of perceptions about Indians, usually based on little direct contact and on what some admitted were little more than Hollywood stereotypes or generalizations.”
Over last weekend, I attended the beach wedding of my nephew. It was a chance for the various families to get together in one location and have a good time. We had assembled from all parts of the country. In my family, we don’t often have a chance to get together. So this was a real opportunity. One of the real social animals at the pre-wedding, wedding, and post-wedding activities was my niece (half-sister to the groom). She and her partner are a committed gay couple. There also seemed to be another gay couple at the various activities. None of this seemed to bother anybody. Nobody seemed threatened.
All this seems to indicate that America is maturing, but that we still need improvement. We need to look at our neighbors to the south with a more enlightened spirit. Walls rarely solve anything. We need to better understand the subcultures within our diverse society. Utah County (one of the most Republican and Mormon counties in the United States) is actually developing into a more interesting culture. And that should not threaten us. And hopefully we will quit feeling threatened by gay/lesbian relationships/unions/marriages. Marriage is about a lot more than procreation.