"In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death. ... I think peace and tranquility will return again."
-- Closing paragraph, "The Diary of A Young Girl," Anne Frank
So where do we go from here?
I remain basically an optimist about the good hearts of most people, and I was definitely taken aback -- and seriously flattered -- by Amy's comment about being the "last best hope for a permanent MIDDLE viewpoint."
And anyone who doesn't believe in the basic goodness of people -- especially in view of the fact that a young girl hiding from the Nazis can feel that way -- is either seriously afraid or a serious misanthrope.
I even believe that Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush had basically good hearts, although I'm not at all sure about Dick Cheney. (That's a joke, Ernie)
But what do you say to someone visiting a museum if they're shot or killed by some lunatic who believes the Jews are out to get him? Too bad? Tough luck? You should have ducked?
What do you do when you encounter hate like that?
In the fall of 1989, I was covering a 49ers football game for my employer, the Reno Gazette-Journal. After I filed my story, I walked to the Candlestick Park parking lot to find that someone had smashed the passenger window in my car. Since I faced a 220-mile drive across the Sierras to get back to Reno -- in December, at night -- I was also faced with basically freezing.
When I got into the mountains, I couldn't take the cold any longer. I pulled off I-80 and went into a convenience store to buy a pair of cheap gloves and a ski cap. A perfectly nice-looking man, manning the cash register, made conversation with me and asked me why I was buying those particular items.
"Somebody smashed my window and broke into my car at the 49ers game," I said. "I'm freezing."
"Probably your ni**ers," he said. "Your ni**ers will do stuff like that."
(If you can't figure it out, the * replaces the letter g)
I knew I wasn't going to convert this individual to tolerance, and I was getting tired, so I just thanked him, got my change and went back to my car.
If I had been younger, if I hadn't been a tired 40-year-old who had seen too much, I probably would have criticized his racist remarks. But except for the racism -- and I know that's an "except for that, how did you like the play, Mrs. Lincoln" remark -- he didn't seem like a bad guy.
He didn't say what he said in an angry voice. He was more old and ignorant than anything else, and I'm not convinced we should hate people for being old or ignorant.
I hate what James von Brunn did yesterday, and I hate the intolerance on both the far left and the far right.
But when it comes down to it, I have to agree with Anne Frank.
In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.
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1 comment:
Mike, I am one of your biggest fans.
I enjoy your blogs, even when I disagree with you.
But I am very concerned that this James von Brunn-thing has somehow triggered something in you that's scary.
You seem to have lost your objectivity and capacity for rational, non-emotional thought.
What James von Brunn did was horrible and evil and altogether terrible.
What's more, it's not unlike the young Muslim who shot the Army recruiting sargeant and killed him.
Hate isn't confined to one group of people. Hate and violence are individual choices. yes, sometimes impressionable people are manipulated to do horrible things, but there is no reason to panic now, no reason to read more into von Brunn's actions than he was a hateful person who chose to express his hate with violence and directed it at a poor, unsuspecting guard.
Sorry, but that's all it was.
There is no conspiracy here. (Yes, after reading your blogs and then going to various sources I am prepared to accept there ARE conspiracies -- in education, with the Federal Reserve, etc. -- but here, in this case, there is no conspiracy.
No need to alert people.
yes, out of 320 million people in this country, there probably are hundreds if not thousands of people very capable of caring out murder, violence, and destruction.
Should we resort to fear? Should we take pre-peremptory actions that are unconstitutional and basically treat people before they commit crimes as if they were already criminals?
I think not.
And I believe in my heart of hearts that you don't either. You've come down squarely in favor of liberty every time you've written on the subject.
And if that means taking some bad with all the good, then so be it.
That's life. And unfortunately, that's also death, too.
I hope you're alright.
It seems the von Brunn thing inflamed you in a way that other acts of violence have not.
It makes me wonder why.
take care, hon.
You're a good man.
Evelyn
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