The Only Thing We Have to Fear

I am having a difficult time trying to write my blog these days.The simple pleasures of life in the country have been dimmed. We are still painting furniture, feeding the birds and laughing at the dogs, but in truth it all feels trivial. There is such turbulence in our country, such divisiveness and fear. What happened to us when I wasn't looking? When did people become so afraid and so discontented? We live in a time with low unemployment, low interest on housing loans, a time when homes are selling once again, the Dow is reaching new heights and jobs go wanting for applicants. And yet we are not happy. I remember a movie I watched when I was a child. It was probably an old re-run and I doubt my parents even knew I watched it. I don't remember the name, but there are images in that film that have stayed with me to this day--and that are probably the basis for how I feel about people of different ethnicities and religions. In the movie there is a family that I think were Jewish, or perhaps the father was Jewish and had married a Christian woman. I cannot remember now. The family bought a home and moved into a neighborhood and at first were welcomed but when people realized they were different, the family was shunned. People quit talking to them; things were thrown at them on the street. Their house was vandalized with painted signs and warnings. I think the family had to leave town in the end. They had come to America to flee the persecution in their country.

I was probably not even 10 years old when I watched that movie. I don't remember the name of the movie, but I remember trying hard to understand what I was seeing. It fit nothing in my small universe then. But the fear of this family, and the ugliness of the whole thing stayed with me to this day. I can still see the father and daughter walking down a street and people peeking out from behind curtains, watching them. I wish I could remember the name of the movie. I would like to watch it again because I think it is relevant to our country today. We made our way through the Salem witch trials, the McCarthy era when even John Wayne was witch-hunting for actors and moviemakers thought to be Communists and helping to blacklist them in Hollywood. We made it through the unrest of the Civil Rights movement and have come a long way in that arena (although we still have a ways to go). 

And now, here we are again. In fear of the Other, of those different from us and our way of life. One would think we had learned something about fear from our own past, from the fear and hatred of World War II and even our own Civil War. But the lessons of history so often go unnoticed, don't they?

This will not turn into a political blog, but I may not be writing as much. Our everyday life pales in significance to the the daily news. I cannot bury my head in the sand and just hope everything will come out okay. 

I remember how the world did that in the 1930's.

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