"We are not enemies, but friends"

The context of this quote speaks volumes, and in my opinion, should give everyone shouting about racism, hatred and evil pause. For while post-Nixon (among others), we have reason to doubt each other, we are not where this speaker was when he said these immortal words.

"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break the bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and heath-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, and again touched - as surely they will be - by the better angels of our nature."

Abraham Lincoln,
March 4, 1861

In so many ways, those scars are still with us. We have with us people who have living memory of direct, open discrimination, and while the vast majority of those acts have been thrown in the trash-bin of history, their echoes still linger and resonate. To ignore this is to ignore reality. It would be the same to assume that a Palestinian should just forget the land his father or grandfather lost in 1948 at the creation of Israel or - ironically - a Jewish survivor of the German concentration camps should just forget his or her experience.

It is simply unfair and plainly unrealistic to expect it.

And to not understand it - no matter how indirectly it may touch many of us - is frankly disrespectful of those who bear directly the scars of history.

The recent issues raised by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright highlight my point. Many are offended by the result of the anger, fear and hatred that underlies his teachings - probably rightfully so. Certainly understandably so.

But if we focus on the result and not the cause, it becomes just another excuse to ignore one another - another step away from the better angels of our nature.

I should mention that this quote was brought to my attention while re-watching American History X. It is a part of the ending speech, and puts a perspective through an incredibly direct look at certain parts of some of our racial issues today, and highlights my point about how the cycle of hatred and anger and violence only breeds more of the same, and pushes us farther away from the better angels of our nature.

Understand, this blog is not now about endings, about solutions - but about beginnings. The solutions will hopefully come once we understand each other enough to truly suggest solutions that might make all whole - not at the expense of another, but alongside and with one another.

Let us begin to try to understand each other completely. What are the scars of joy and pain, the experiences of love and hate. Because it is in the lack of understanding that leads us to ignorant actions - actions that most likely will not help heal our nations centuries old wounds but compound them, adding another layer of scar tissue over the prior ones.

The thing of it is, though - President Lincoln's confidence in the better angels of our nature does not mean that those angels will take care of things without our involvement. Rather, we must make conscious choice to find, embrace and work with those better angels. To in-fact BE those angels.

Inertia is what it is. Every day you don't personally work towards creating inertia towards healing is a day where entropy will continue to move inertia towards hatred.

I am not telling you something you don't already know, but rather highlight something maybe you'd rather forget - It is easier to destroy than create.

"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies." That was not a statement of belief, or of fact, but a call to make a choice.

For the sake of all we love, and all we hold dear, no matter our experience in this imperfect union, truly, we must not be enemies.

Truly,
The Dormouse