This editorial cartoon in yesterday’s newspaper says a lot about the state of American discourse. The understanding of creative conflict with dialog seems to have ended. For years I have tried to enter into a dialog with Marquette University about their hosting the teaching of war and killing and also with the local St. Vincent de Paul (SVDP) Society about the treatment of the poor. At first both groups listened to us about our concerns but would not enter into a dialog with us. Instead, Marquette expresses why they are hosting military training and SVDP expresses how the return on their investment of four million dollars of funds for a store serving the suburbs will aid the poor. Neither group had the decency to respond to our message and finally marginalized us and completely ignored our message.

At first I was like one of the cartoon characters, taking rejection of our message personally. But, now, I realize that I am dealing with intelligent people who have no moral rationale for their position so instead of entering in a creative dialog just ignore you, thus ignoring the message. Showing indifference or ignoring someone, as Elie Wiesel reminds us, is the opposite of love. “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.” When someone ignores you in order to ignore the message, they become your enemy and in this case it is hard to “love your enemies.”

Rather than react these days I just try to respond in a kind and gentle manner, making the message stronger and I try to be the message I want people to hear.

This might mean being inconvenienced by friends who call for rides or other needs, not getting too frustrated about wasting time trying to fix my hacked computer or it might mean a gentler tone to the message, still strong and intellectual but appealing to heart.

Treat people with love and respect as you would like them to treat you seems to be the lost state of American discourse.

Comments

Please send any comments on this post to . Let us know which day’s post your comments pertain to. If the comments are appropriate we will post them here for you.