It can get a little scary here in the shadows

JayDean gave me a heads-up in a previous thread that the individual who did more than anyone else I can think of to make this blog necessary is back at Blog for America after being absent for several days. Robert Oler. Yes, he tries my nerves. Yes, I sometimes lose my temper in response to him, and I hate when that happens, because I *know* he gloats about that, and I don't like giving him the satisfaction.

But on the other hand, I have to admit that, at least indirectly, he has served as an inspiration. Granted, sometimes he just inspires me to say "Bite me", but other times he really has inspired me to get off the blog and put a lot of thought into a post that I might not have written otherwise. And this blog--I probably wouldn't have gone to the trouble of creating it if he hadn't gotten on my last nerve.

Well, whatever the reason for creating it, it's *here* now, and I'm glad. Having played midwife in bringing this baby blog into the world, I'm looking forward to watching it grow up. I also look forward to being *one* of the people who helps raise it, but I hope to be one of a number of caregivers who offer a variety of perspectives. Because I really *do* think that the survival of this planet depends on our ability to learn to interact respectfully with each other, even when we disagree--to learn to coexist amicably on spaceship Earth.

Things won't get better if we all only hang out with people who agree with us. We need to step out of our comfort zones and have real dialog. The way I see it, there are only a few things we need to agree on to have such dialog...

-How we treat people always matters.

-Everything we do or say can have a ripple effect--for good or for bad. We need to maximize the good whenever possible, and minimize the bad.

-We, as humans, really can do better, but we need an approach that is different from "business as usual".

-Name-calling and mind-reading people who disagree with us is not helpful. Not just "not nice", but it only adds to the problem. We (I) need to spend more time trying to genuinely understand people, rather than labeling them or settling for interpretations of their worldviews that make us (me) feel superior but it harder to communicate productively with people who are (at the moment) "on the other side".

What's the scary part? Admitting we don't have all the answers, for one thing. Uncertainty is pretty unsettling. Feels so much more safe and reassuring when things are black and white, and you're sure that you're on the good side of the force. It's scary to admit we don't know everything, to "lose face", to explore the possibility that bad things are not only the responsibility of "evildoers" who we could easily pick out of a crowd. Accepting the very real possibility that the things we do, or don't do, play a role in creating some of the bad things we see in the world around us.

Acknowledging race issues, and talking about them, can be pretty scary too...which is why we often avoid those issues. This week, people have actually started talking about race and racism more openly. It's not easy, but it's necessary, and it's about time.

Race and Katrina: Starting a Discussion

the race card