by Irene Daniel
I'm back. I've been sick lately. The entire Christmas holiday fortnight was spent coughing and hacking, sneezing, sweating, freezing, going through boxes and boxes of Kleenex and, well, you get the picture. Perhaps you suffered a similar fate. I heard there was something awful going around.
It was difficult to articulate a complete sentence, much less a blog post. I mean, this thing really took me out completely. As I was disabled from serious writing or serious anything, for that matter, I read a lot and watched, probably, too much TV. At least some of the time I was watching historical documentaries and docudramas, being the historian that I am. And I learned a lot of things I didn't know before.
The History Channel was running a series on the history of mankind, making a valiant effort to connect the dots between historic events and eras. Parts of it were pretty good, but when it got to the part about the New World, it was pretty much a rehash of white revisionist history; glorifying Christopher Columbus and praising European conquest, while treating the exploitation of the indigenous as something of an unfortunate footnote. They finally got around to Civil Rights in the last 16 minutes (4 of which were commercials) of a 6 hour series. A speed-bump in the history of the white historian, it seems.
In its blind worship of the innovations of the industrial age, it almost completely ignored the abuses and exploitation of immigrants and nonwhites in order to build cities, railroads, mines and factories. It did mention the plight of the Irish immigrant working on the railroads, risking life and limb for less than $1 per day. What about the slaves? What about the other immigrants -- Chinese, Mexican, Italian? What about the exploitation of the Native populations already established on this continent? They did mention that one life was lost per every one mile of track, as well as how unfortunate it was that the indigenous populations inhabiting the western hemisphere was an inconvenient truth; an impediment to progress. And then they moved on to hail speed and greed. And I wonder: Do they hire writers and researchers who are not white and male? The finished products on the History Channel suggest that they do not. What a shame. What are they waiting for?
What I did learn was that the history of the human race largely involves becoming more efficient at killing each other. While many wars were fought over territory, wealth and sometimes principle, most seemed to have been fought by one group of people violently trying to convince and convert another group of people of the superiority of their own benevolent god. Cheery stuff, huh? No wonder I suffer from off the charts anxiety.
I also found myself watching a lot of shows on the Military Channel, which I think is mostly excellent. I learned much more about Hitler and his extraordinarily odd and revolting sexual habits than I ever wanted to know; although it explains quite a lot about how warped he was. His brutal childhood further explains the origin of his unremitting rage. Their programming on WWI gave an excellent perspective on how his rise to power was created at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.
I learned about how the brothers Dulles created the idea of "American Exceptionalism," which fed manifest destiny fantasy; as well as the seeds of the military-industrial complex. This, in turn, became the fuel for unprecedented corporate power; which will be our Titanic if we don't do something soon to return power to the people. Or maybe empowering the masses will actually be a first here in our oligarchic America. But only if we are brave enough to seize our moment, our nation, our future.
More than anything, I learned to once again be in awe of the miracle of humanity. Look at how we keep brutalizing each other, and yet, we come back stronger each time. And, as the Duck Dynasty dust-up kept popping up over the holidays, I wondered about why we make the choices that we do. Why do we choose to see the worst in other people? People who don't look like us, or think like us, or talk like us? Why do we choose to see them as "the other." And especially, why are we so afraid of each other?
I wondered at how people can read the same Bible; and some will see love and some will see "the other." And then I realized that the difference is really whether you read with the eyes of love or whether you read with the eyes of fear. And this is true of all things, I have found; at least for me.
When I see with fear, I create a rationale for separation from what scares me. And when I am brave enough to see with love, I realize that there is no separation -- from God (whatever that means to you), or from one another.
Because I am human, I don't always see with the eyes of love. I'm good, but I'm not that good. However, when I do, I lose my fear. I might be annoyed still, but I'm no longer afraid of "the other." There is no us and them. There is only US.
That's what I learned on my Christmas vacation.
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