by Marlena Elias
March 5, 2002

Unfortunately it looks like there is going to be a theme this year to my writing, and I feel the need to address this topic because I've just about had it. Clearly I don't like people. Everyone who knows me knows that I think people suck. I wish I could like humanity, but people are so awful to each other that I don't want to even allow the possibility that people can love and accept each other. People are too stupid and ignorant for that.

So now you're wondering what got my undies in a bundle to start the year off with such an attitude? Paramilitary camps in Texas that are preparing to start a racial war in the US. I realize that Texas is not the only state that has such a beast, but it's just unbelievable to me that folks could spend so much energy hating that they need a camp for it!

Here's the problem kids: These small annoying groups are very well-organized. They may not even have 1000 members, but they are well financed, well-organized, and pumped full of hatred. The other problem is the majority of people who would never consider this behavior as acceptable don't get involved in anything beyond their own lives. So the small groups gain momentum and the majority of us hide behind our excuses and do nothing. We get irate and we get upset, but what to we actually do?

Just as the "moral majority" is well-financed and well-organized, so are the crazy groups. Even the tree huggers are crazy, saving a tree even if it means taking a life. The majority of humanity in this country has to stand up and be counted, for the love of God! Are we so lazy that when it comes to election time we don't know anything about the candidates? Are we so lazy that we can't be bothered to vote? Are we so comfortable in our country that we take our freedoms fore granted? Honestly, I don't think we learned a thing from 9/11/2001. All we learned as a country was how to spot and harass people who don't look like "us" and put the American flag on our cars! Go America!

Because I don't seem to fit neatly into a racial category, people of all colors seem to feel comfortable enough to tell racially biased jokes in front of me. There was one occasion of harassment in particular that nearly had me screaming at these people who I cared deeply about. The story was about how a black family had moved into a predominantly white neighborhood in Lombard, Illinois. The White folks thought it would be funny to burn a cross on their yard on Halloween. They really thought this was hysterically funny. I sat in abject horror while these people laughed about what they thought was a harmless prank. I don't remember what I said to them after they told the story, but the topic changed. I remembered feeling like they had just removed their masks and I was seeing their true faces for the first time. The story is awful, but the truth is this one group of people are not the only violators and perpetuators of this kind of ignorant behavior. It occurs to me, as I get older that this is common practice among the white middle class. I won't rule out that this kind of intolerance - because that's what it is - is limited to just white people, but I seriously doubt people of other colors feel as superior and at the same insecure, so they feel the need to keep others down.

Again I admit to be naive because I don't understand human nature and I don't know why people have to hate. I don't understand the need for these hate groups nor do I understand the need to feel threatened by all the colors in the human rainbow. Still I have to ask, what reaction would Jesus have if he saw the mess this world has become? I bring up Jesus, because the people who make the racial slurs are proud of their Christian faith.

So then the question becomes, are the hate groups that come out and say, "we hate you because you're _____ color" worse than the people who pretend to really get along in the ethnically diverse world we live in? Hypocrites are everywhere. A friend of mine who is a Southern Baptist once told me that he preferred Southerners to Northerners because at least the Southerners were honest about their racial hatred. How do you like that?

Can people fear what they don't understand to the point of killing? Apparently this is true; I guess I'm just being naive again, because I just don't understand. Maybe I'll never understand and maybe there is no answer. If 9/11/01 didn't jolt this country out of its complacency and force us to acknowledge our diversity, then we are due to self-destruct. Wave your flags all you want, sing "God Bless America" until you're hoarse, but if you don't accept the differences that make this country great, then we're no better than the international terrorists. If our domestic terrorists are not controlled then the people who died in Oklahoma City and New York City died in vain.

God Bless America, 'cause we're going to need it. <EM>