It is Time to Hear from the Better Angels of Our Nature
By Brother Rogers
Lots of Americans can’t stand one another, don’t trust each other and are willing – even eager – to believe the worst about one another. So says Time magazine.
This is a sad state of affairs for our country. Fear mongering is defined as the use of fear to influence the opinions and actions of others toward some specific end. Glenn Beck of Fox News and documentary maker Michael Moore are professional fear mongerers. Both have become multimillionaires by catering to their audiences’ greatest fears and stoking the fires of conspiracy theories.
My greatest fear is not any kooky conspiracy du jour being trumpeted by extremists on the left or the right. It is the loss of Christian charity, civility, decency, decorum, and respect for those who have different views. These are the kind of traits that come to mind when I remember statesmen like the late Senator John C. Stennis, and they are in short supply today.
The lack of civility by critics was pronounced in the Clinton years, accelerated greatly in the Bush era, and has been off the charts with opponents of Obama. When someone on the left falsely claims that the Bush administration had a hand in creating the disaster on 9/11 then there is no room for dialogue. When they accuse Bush of deliberately lying about WMD to invade Iraq on some kind of crusade, then no middle ground exists. Question his judgment or his intelligence, but to believe he just lied is absurd.
The lack of trust and decency has hit a new low under Obama. What kind of a country do we live in where the president of the United States cannot tell America’s school children that they need to study hard and stay in school? Those who opposed showing this speech in our schools, where the dropout rates are unacceptable, should feel ashamed. The notion that President Obama was going to try to brainwash our children with some political doctrine is such nonsense that it is hard to dignify such a nutty idea by commenting on it.
What takes the cake is the zeal of those who continue to doubt that Obama was born in America. These zealots are unconvinced by an official copy of his birth certificate or looking at an old Honolulu newspaper with a birth announcement. This is conspiracy theory run amok, which is not good for reasonable debate in a healthy democracy.
Finally, there is the case of Joe Wilson, the South Carolina congressman who yelled “You lie” during President Obama’s heath care speech to a joint session of Congress. He instantly raised two million dollars for his next campaign and is being lauded by many as a hero. I wonder what John Stennis would have thought about such an undignified outburst.
Bitterness and acrimony are as old as the republic itself. George Washington believed that Thomas Jefferson had abandoned civility, and the two were not on speaking terms for the last years of Washington’s life. Vice President Aaron Burr shot and killed his political enemy, Alexander Hamilton.
While bad behavior isn’t new, it is still wrong. The founders knew it, and we know it today. We know in our hearts that regardless of where we fall on the political spectrum, something is wrong with our political discourse. Skepticism and criticism are fine, but fear mongering and demagoguery are not.
Perhaps we should remember the final words from Lincoln’s first inaugural address. “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Brother Rogers is a guest columnist for the Starkville Daily News and works for the Stennis Center for Public Service.
Lots of Americans can’t stand one another, don’t trust each other and are willing – even eager – to believe the worst about one another. So says Time magazine.
This is a sad state of affairs for our country. Fear mongering is defined as the use of fear to influence the opinions and actions of others toward some specific end. Glenn Beck of Fox News and documentary maker Michael Moore are professional fear mongerers. Both have become multimillionaires by catering to their audiences’ greatest fears and stoking the fires of conspiracy theories.
My greatest fear is not any kooky conspiracy du jour being trumpeted by extremists on the left or the right. It is the loss of Christian charity, civility, decency, decorum, and respect for those who have different views. These are the kind of traits that come to mind when I remember statesmen like the late Senator John C. Stennis, and they are in short supply today.
The lack of civility by critics was pronounced in the Clinton years, accelerated greatly in the Bush era, and has been off the charts with opponents of Obama. When someone on the left falsely claims that the Bush administration had a hand in creating the disaster on 9/11 then there is no room for dialogue. When they accuse Bush of deliberately lying about WMD to invade Iraq on some kind of crusade, then no middle ground exists. Question his judgment or his intelligence, but to believe he just lied is absurd.
The lack of trust and decency has hit a new low under Obama. What kind of a country do we live in where the president of the United States cannot tell America’s school children that they need to study hard and stay in school? Those who opposed showing this speech in our schools, where the dropout rates are unacceptable, should feel ashamed. The notion that President Obama was going to try to brainwash our children with some political doctrine is such nonsense that it is hard to dignify such a nutty idea by commenting on it.
What takes the cake is the zeal of those who continue to doubt that Obama was born in America. These zealots are unconvinced by an official copy of his birth certificate or looking at an old Honolulu newspaper with a birth announcement. This is conspiracy theory run amok, which is not good for reasonable debate in a healthy democracy.
Finally, there is the case of Joe Wilson, the South Carolina congressman who yelled “You lie” during President Obama’s heath care speech to a joint session of Congress. He instantly raised two million dollars for his next campaign and is being lauded by many as a hero. I wonder what John Stennis would have thought about such an undignified outburst.
Bitterness and acrimony are as old as the republic itself. George Washington believed that Thomas Jefferson had abandoned civility, and the two were not on speaking terms for the last years of Washington’s life. Vice President Aaron Burr shot and killed his political enemy, Alexander Hamilton.
While bad behavior isn’t new, it is still wrong. The founders knew it, and we know it today. We know in our hearts that regardless of where we fall on the political spectrum, something is wrong with our political discourse. Skepticism and criticism are fine, but fear mongering and demagoguery are not.
Perhaps we should remember the final words from Lincoln’s first inaugural address. “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Brother Rogers is a guest columnist for the Starkville Daily News and works for the Stennis Center for Public Service.