By NANCY PATRICK

I try to write an article every other week, but I sometimes find that difficult because just as I decide on a topic, some world event distracts my attention. I actually started my last article on Steinbeck’s East of Eden three times before I finally found a focus.

My first attempt related to my bout of Covid the first week of October and the lingering effects of that infection. That led to another topic about my desire to withdraw from the world and tell everyone I was taking a mental health hiatus from society.

Just as thought more about living a reclusive life as Emily Dickinson and Henry David Thoreau did, Hamas executed a heinous terrorist attack in Israel. That attack brought me back quickly to the world I must live in.

The attack has planted seeds of confusion (bewilderment, perplexity, chaos, turmoil, disorientation, uncertainty) in my mind. I have always known about the hatred among several countries in the Mideast. I have known of the animosity among the races, religions, and cultures.

What I do not understand and what I abhor about the hatred I observe in Eastern countries as well as Western civilizations is why so many of us hate other people who are simply different from us. Why is it so important to be alike? We learn prejudice, hatred, and fear at an early age—those traits are neither inherited nor innate. We see and hear them, we copy them, and then we adopt them.

I have mentioned before a reporter named Steve Hartman who reports for CBS News. He does a weekly segment called “On the Road.” In these features, Hartman shares narratives of everyday people he meets in places all over the United States. The stories are always heartwarming and tear-producing.

In addition, with two of his children, Hartman does a piece called “Kindness 101” on CBS This Morning. In this report, his son has a dictionary and defines the term they will discuss in the day’s story. Hartman and his daughter introduce the concept and interview someone who has appeared in an earlier “On the Road” feature.

A recent term was “humanity.” What is humanity? The word implies characteristics pertaining to a human being—not an animal or inanimate object. This particular story dealt with a woman who had always been judgmental of homeless people because she thought they were lazy or bad individuals.

One day as she traveled to work, she decided to stop and talk to a homeless man she saw on the same corner every day. She did not know her exact reason—just some urging inside her heart to talk to him.

This encounter grew into a beautiful story. As she talked to the man, she began seeing him as a human being. She found that in spite of his being dirty and homeless, he was a kind, curious, and intelligent young man. As she was about to leave after her third visit, he asked, “When will you come back?”

She realized that he didn’t want anything from her except her presence. She enriched his life by recognizing his humanity. Their relationship developed into a familial one in which she and her husband invited him to live with them as they helped him get on his feet.

He accepted their offer. He went to school and learned a trade, got a job, rented his own apartment which he shares with a roommate. The familial relationship continues but has grown into a healthy relationship between independent adults.

For this woman to overcome her prejudice against homeless people, she had to stop, look, and listen to a homeless man who revealed his humanity—the traits he shared with other human beings. We all want love, safety, independence, and dignity.

As I think about the horrors in Palestine and Israel (as well as those in Ukraine), I want to make all these people recognize each other’s humanity. The militant branch of Palestine sees only that Jews have stolen their land. Likewise, the Israelis view the Palestinians as subhuman thieves who have no place in the land God promised the Hebrew nation.

I have not discovered Putin’s reason for hating the Ukrainians unless it is simple hatred and greed and his passionate desire for power and wealth. Whatever the reason, Putin has failed to see or appreciate the humanity of the Ukrainian people.

In our own country, people are sharply divided in their beliefs about many issues affecting humanity in America. Our government officials argue over how much aid to offer our citizens in various demographic groups. They argue over matters that should not even be considered political such as a woman’s reproductive rights. 

Their speeches are vitriolic and hateful. These people, who supposedly work for American citizens, have formed partisan groups that focus on their special desires and needs. They have hardened their hearts to logic, reason, collaboration, compromise, compassion, and humanity.

Nikki Giovanni’s poem “Allowables” speaks a difficult but simple truth:

I killed a spider
Not a murderous brown recluse
Nor even a black widow
And if the truth were told this
Was only a small
Sort of papery spider
Who should have run
When I picked up the book
But she didn’t
And she scared me
And I smashed her

I don’t think
I’m allowed

To kill something

Because I am Frightened 

Nancy Patrick is a retired teacher who lives in Abilene and enjoys writing