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Consider This
North Miami Beach, FL May 8, 2002
A.H. Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on Issues, Ideas and Reflections on the Times. Published now and
then. Opinions pro or con are welcome.
CONSIDER THIS
I have been reading the commentaries that appear daily in the
newspapers. We get five of them and find that the writing is usually good,
perceptive and mildly biased. But that last is to be expected. What is
missing is the huge amount of blatant hate literature that is poured forth
daily in the newsprint, over TV, radio and the internet. There seems to be
a seething volcanic activity ready to burst out just when you sit back and
feel that everything is right in the world. We get stories about little
girls who are now the focus of concern because of fractures in the way
public officials follow their care. We do not share the Arabic press,
radio, TV and the internet with its endless pressuring thought to only
consider the Palestinian plight. We get snippets of this and fail to
recognize its power, something similar to a tidal wave of continental
proportions.
When thinking of something earthshaking to reduce to a page of
clear thought I find myself inadequate to the task. The great thinkers on
the pages of the New York Times and similar publications can only grasp a
few details and make them understandable. My mind reaches out and I try to
take the entirety of wretchedness in the world and reduce the whole of it to
simple statements that make sense. They often do not make sense to me; but
I try.
If we take politics out of the mix along with surface appearances
of the present turmoil between one tiny religious group and a billion plus
of another religious group and a huge number of sympathizers who all want
the disappearance of the tiny group, there is not much chance of any
statement I make that will make a difference. There is no place to go when
the odds are stacked up so high against anything you might have to say or
think.
I have great feelings of brotherhood for the mass of people who
have no voice. I see injustice daily on the streets where people (and I)
ignore the poor, homeless and the vast gulf between the haves and have-nots.
But, what can I say other than what I say when I write about thinking
allowed. Carol's Evaluation: 10 out of 10.
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