By Nancy Patrick

With political wars going on around the world, I find myself in the middle of a spiritual war. The thing is—the politics of war often conflict with my spiritual values. I might add that when I speak of my spiritual values, I include the values that encompass both emotional and psychological aspects of my life.

Throughout my life, I have formed most of my relationships with people who share my values. During my professional life, I met most of my friends through work or church. Since my husband was a minister, church members filled a portion of my life while my teaching colleagues supplied my other friendships.

With so many acquaintances available for friendships, I had no trouble finding others with whom I shared many values. My life has always revolved around family and religion as well as educational and social issues. With a wide range of activities and people with whom to associate, I never felt lonely in my spiritual life because multiple people complemented my own personality.

Things changed for my husband and me after we retired. Our lives suddenly became smaller with fewer and fewer people in our social circle. In addition to that fact, I began having health issues that decreased my physical activity along with depression that decreased my desire for social interaction.

My preface explains the unusual situation I find myself in now. I often feel very lonely and fearful as I realize that my circle of friends has become much smaller than in the past. Many of my current friends do not share my social, political, spiritual, and moral values. 

I have no problem with diversity, but I do have a problem with conflict. I hate feeling at odds with other people because I don’t feel strong enough to defend my principles as my younger self did. 

As a baby boomer, I thought those of my generation shared most of the same values. I have since discovered the fallacy of that belief. As my school mates and I left high school and began our adult lives, some developed varying lifestyles that differed greatly from our conservative West Texas backgrounds. 

Most of us attended church regularly during high school, and our biggest discussion points centered around biblical interpretations of spiritual matters. In the sixties, Abilene was a “dry” community, meaning people couldn’t go into a convenience store and pick up a six pack of beer.

Our high schools did not even have proms because many of our churches felt that dancing tempted young people to sin. We had gender segregated swimming pools in some areas, and sex outside marriage was a huge sin. Families feared scandals from unwed pregnancies and riotous living. 

By the time of my 50^th class reunion, my childhood friends’ lifestyles clearly conveyed our differences. The biggest difference I noticed focused on our clashing political viewpoints. Until recent years, I found it fairly easy to avoid expressing controversial opinions because they didn’t interfere with my daily life.

I have found, unfortunately, that many of today’s issues do affect my daily life and the core of my spiritual being. Social media has become the forum for all kinds of information—true or false, it doesn’t matter.

Social media also provides the ability to shield oneself from identity; therefore, many people feel no hesitation in making scurrilous remarks about other people’s personalities, character, intentions, activities, and motives.

The world of my youth condemned outrageously insulting language that hurt other people. Our parents taught us never to call people ugly names, make fun of those with disabilities, demean the character of others, or attack our opponents with vicious vitriol. 

The current political atmosphere in the United States has been combustible for several years—the very air feels flammable. People’s anger erupts in an inability to be civil. I find myself fearful in my new world where many people have no compassion or empathy for those whose beliefs differ from theirs.

I realize that in the U.S. we value our freedom of speech, but we need to recognize some limits on that freedom. Speech that defames others, speech that incites others to violence, speech that disregards truth, and speech that propagates hatred is not what the first amendment guaranteed. 

I interpret the right to freedom of expression as the privilege to believe or say whatever I want without fear of retaliation from others. Unfortunately, in today’s world, I do not feel the safety afforded by the First Amendment. 

Feeling threatened by those with opposing viewpoints weakens our facility to express ourselves freely. I feel great sorrow in realizing that many of the citizens of the country I love have reverted to beliefs and behaviors I thought had died in history. The resurgence of these loud and aggressive dogma scares me.

I hope we can find ways to unite during the coming months of political debate. May we think carefully before speaking. May we temper our language with softer tones. May we graciously allow room for differing opinions. And may we remember that humanity is precious but also fragile.

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