Muslims in America: The fear of the other

Now that terrorism now seems to be part and parcel of our global lives, opinions are flying back and forth across the media, or a conversation at the coffee shop, or the gym. Coming close on the aftershock of the Paris attacks, and the equally horrific carnage in San Bernardino, the debate on how to fight these acts, and to identify how to stave off future events seems to be on everyone’s minds, including the by-now infamous remarks by the leading Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, that there should be a ban on Muslims entering the country, the issue is front and center in our consciousness.

While widely, and justifiably, condemned by all, including the Republican National Committee, excepting his wildly enthusiastic fans in South Carolina, gave me pause to think, not only of the verbal rhetoric of Trump, but also that this type of fear mongering can take place in American minds. But, a backward glance in the historical mirror gave me some answers.

In the not too distant past Roman Catholics were a target of hatred and misunderstanding from many in the United States, and while there was no call to ban them, the huge wave of immigration of Irish Catholics, after the potato famine in the 19th century, gave many supposedly “native” Americans pause for suspicion. In fact, the spate of “Irish, need not apply,” signs seemed to be merely tip of the iceberg. Shortly after one could see editorial cartoons of rapacious priests, and alligators with mitre-shaped heads snapping at the shores of America, a young girl on the shores, recoiling in fear.

Most of this anti-catholicism was sponsored by the Nativists, a socio-political party, also known as the “Know Nothings,” because if they were ever questioned by the authorities, they would say that they knew nothing.

While this all seems to be part of long-ago history, it is important to see the connections between then and now: the unfounded fear of many, at that time, was that the Pope would come to America to topple our still youthful democracy, it was also easy to see the foreignness of this religion with its foreign tongues, it's robed and soutained priests, and a worshipful and obedient,l membership

Much of the vitriol erupted during the New York Draft Riots where Irish immigrants, who faced the draft while wealthy whites could avoid it by paying a commutation fee to hire a substitute.caused a deadly riot. Some say 2,000 people were injured and killed, although that figure is debatable, the distrust of the “other” and the fiery condemnations led to violence. Within that event, the deadliest since the CIvil War itself, was the fear of job losses to emancipated blacks, the fear of the other.

While it would be difficult to draw a bright line around that event, as an antecedent, it is easy to see that in America, fear mongering can have a deleterious effect on our society.

Now we enter a new era of people from another far-off land, whose clothes, behavior, worship style and speech seem threatening to our understanding of American life, as we see it. We’ve also entered it with the same level of fear and ignorance, as we did before, but now linked with those that have hijacked Islam, from  its established roots, our fear alert has been ratcheted up. While violence and murder is always a game change, our minds already acutely alerted to disaster has intensified the efforts at demonization.

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The pushback against an ever increasing diverse society, aided and abetted by demagoguery, has created a climate of hate, and religious prejudice, that makes the Catholic question (which prospered till the election of JFK) seem benign, although the historically slim victory of Kennedy made it real.

Fear Mongering is not new -- what is new -- is the depths that we have taken it in American society - from the forced internment of Japanese Americans to Muslim women having their veils (the hijab) torn from their heads, in some places, across the country.. This is an issue that is larger than Trump, albeit one that he has exploited, but it must give us pause to see the link between exploitation,and fear, on a such a deep level of intolerance.

The role of mainstream Christianity - indeed one that seems to be in the abeyance - as a social fulcrum, fuirher complicates the matter as evidenced, by the unrelated, yet relevant campaign against Starbucks red holiday coffee cup, without the label of Merry Christmas printed on it. And, while the seeming demise of Christmas is unwarranted, what is rearing its head again in this country is religious intolerance, for diversity, often mislabelled as “political correctness”, is an oft quoted mantra, and which some see it as a sign of imminent apocalypse.

Besides the role of ignorance on the anti-Muslim stance is the role of immigration in America, and who, or perhaps more exactly, who should we admit. Not too long ago it was Mexicans, and the desire to build a fence at the border between the two countries, but now the Muslim barrier must be one that is legislated, if not of brick and mortar, but instead, born of a  nascent nativism.

I hear near weekly, from a senior friend of mine, bemoaning the fact that he has to deal with immigrants, in this case, Russian immigrants; a point that is lost on him with his family that immigrated from Germany in the late 19th century. Again, the spectre of the other.

The question remains for those who are discontent with the coming threat to American values: can we take it from the top, instead of the bottom? If the 1960s saw the rise of the Cold War, then we are ready for another seismic shift from our country's founding values.

I was gratified when my friend Lesley Williams, of Evanston, organized a rally last week to protest Islamophobia, and I was particularly gratified to hear a young Muslim woman,  Bushra Amiwala, a  senior at Niles North High School say this: “We may be unaware of these things since it doesn’t directly affect us, but we are one nation, one city, one community, one family. And if Islamophobia affects one of us, it affects us all. I have been blessed to be encapsulated in such an accepting community filled with diversity and such open minded, accepting people. A school where we can come together during a time of disparity and sit in a safe space. We are the generation of change, so together, let’s create a more beautiful tomorrow.”

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America is trapped by gun violence: is there a way out?

At one time in our country guns were not as commonplace as they are now - they used to be associated with Chicago gangsters, cowboys, and political assassinations, but now they are as ubiquitous as the corner gas station’s mini-mart.

The recent shootings of unarmed policeman, movie theatre goers, church members, grade school children, toddlers (as unintended targets of bullets meant for thugs), and the untold deaths from handguns, especially in Chicago, has made me incredulous at the widespread violence, but even more so at the desensitization of the American public, as we shrug our shoulders at yet another senseless killing, random acts of violence that don’t seem random anymore, just another fact of life in America.

A few years back I wrote about the death of Hadiya Pendleton, for my Examiner column, and the bright promise of her dreams deferred, and now the bullets are flying faster, and faster, be they intentional, or not.

Our lawmakers seem near mute on these occasions, except, the by now, cursory condolences to the family and those that suffer. I wonder are they afraid of the powerful gun lobby, headed by The National Rifle Association, or are they silenced by the horror of the deeds? This silence seems to lead to more deaths, than we can account for, or keep track of.

Something has to occur, but at multiple levels: the government, the schools, the counselors, but perhaps most of all early intervention for those that perpetuate these crimes -- so often after the shock, we learn of teachers that warned school officials, like the shooter at Northern Illinois University, or the teachers at Columbine, who saw the black shrouded students, far removed from student life, but also remained silent.

If it takes a village to raise a child then, it’s going to take a country to save the lives of its citizens, but beginning now ----  but it will require courage to fight those that give specious arguments, such as “guns kill people, people don’t.”

At one point there seemed to be some hope after the attempt on the life of President Reagan, and his press secretary James Brady, and the efforts of he and his wife - admirable, and while gun control is part of the picture, as I’ve stated, we as a nation, need to understand that a paucity of inaction can lead to even greater tragedies, something that we can ill afford.

One possible area that seems ripe for improvement and that is recognizing the symptoms of mental illness and the behaviors that accompany them: social isolation, weak, or non-existent social skills, poor family interaction, and a million other psychological factors that that, when combined with guns, can lead to violence. This is an area ripe for reporting. I remember reading that the killer at Northern Illinois University had written an essay that had greatly disturbed his teacher, but that her complaints and the counseling intervention were ignored - to the great detriment of the students that were shot that day.

In these days of ever-tightening budgets, money must somehow be found and spent on a multi-faceted approach to ensure good mental hygiene, because we are seeing the risks, and the results far too soon, and far too often.

Our urban areas are pockmarked with gang and drug related violence, where no one’s life is valued, just another way to deal with those that have betrayed the gang, or tried to grab a part of the ever lucrative drug economy. While volumes have been written on that, and ink, and funds spilled, these efforts seem to pale besides the statistics, and the gang bullets that fly, especially in communities of color.

Are our hearts, or our hands not large enough to embrace the loss, or is the issue so large, the magnitude too great, to even create a blueprint for the battle. Because as Lincoln so well noted, the “better angels of our nature” must rise to the surface and not be buried with those that have fallen.

Education for a new world: the need to embrace a future generation

Back in the day, or whatever day we want to use, there was a strict emphasis on getting the 3 r’s -- reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic --- access to education, even basic education became essential to future job success - and in the United States public education had advanced from limited access in the 19th century to an essential right, in the 20th for all Americans, whether it was the Little Red Schoolhouse, or the palatial high schools that sprung up across the country, in the early 1930s and 40s, and championed by forerunners such as Horace Greeley, and John Dewey.

Americans are a proud people, and they took great pride in an educational system that fostered not merely the ability to write, or do sums, but also to breed patriots, and even piety - for once the Bible was taught alongside McGuffy’s Reader.

By the the middle of the 20th century public education had evolved from a time in the early part of the century where education was completed, for men, with eighth grade as the final point; till the 1940s and 50s when high school education had increased the average age of completion.

The blight of racial segregation had its detriment on Black Americans who went to separate, and unequal schools that were technically outlawed in 1954 with the landmark decision of Brown v. Board of Education. But, what followed was far less the ideal and far more the worse for the. Jim Crow laws had remained stalwart and in 1963 gave televised images of governors George Wallace and Ross Barnett vowing to bar black students from their respective public universities.

Fast forward to the later 20th century where inequality still exists, education has changed to go beyond what in my day seemed simpler: the mere attainment of a bachelor’s degree as an entry to professional employment. Now, a graduate degree is required to enter even the middling ranks of the professional class.

To get there requires a foundation, and one that still depends on the basics -- and while the basics are now beyond the structure of the little red school house, but are now wired for wi-fi, replete with power strips for laptops and a digital library. Yet, that seems elusive for Illinois children as they grapple to find a sure footing on funding that is tied to property taxes, where the rich get a richer school experience, and the poor get, well, a poorer chance at that schoolhouse.

Currently, schools in Chicago suffer not only from racial segregation, but also from economic segregation - with the luckier ones at schools such New Trier in the suburbs, or those in the city at Latin, Frances Parker or the prestigious University of Chicago Lab where tuition approaches that of a public university. The fact that the tuition is so high, even in private schools, gives one pause for thought.

Neighborhood schools are still present, but their administration and their teachers have been vilified as being not just part of the problem, but the problem itself; and the task of educating, some think, can only be left to charter schools, (those private schools in a public school system), that has now become big business. The irony is that while they are being touted as an improvement, the highest test scores come from neighborhood schools,and not charters.

Added to the mix is the politicization of education that has educators pitted against politicians, the mayor against the teachers, the teachers union against the mayor, and the whole crazy patchwork quilt of bureaucracy, and where no one seems to know the end result, giving credence to the old baseball adage, “can’t tell the players without a program.”

One player in the political program that denigrates teachers is New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie who said, on a nationally television program when asked who he would like to punch in the face, according to Poltico:

"While not naming AFT, Christie answered, “The national teachers union who’s already endorsed Hillary Clinton 16, 17 months before the election.” In July, AFT endorsed Hillary Clinton for president."

He continued with this ruthless assessment, “They're not for education for our children; they're for greater membership, greater benefits, greater pay for their members, and they are the single most destructive force in public education in America,” Christie said about the union.

Beyond partisanship, the world outside the doors of the classroom, for some, has become a panoply of gun violence, and where even a decent living is now compromised. The student issues of family strife, drug usage, and crime, creep into the crevices of the minds of the students, sometimes making them inoperable. But, just outside the doors is a world with new demands, new skills, demands for intellectually based skills rather than manufacturing ability; but many educators and observers ask, where, and how can these students find a fit? Is this solely a case of economic access, or can the challenge be met in other ways?

Certainly we can see despite the new world, that equal access to quality education for blacks has not been achieved, and the equal challenge for Hispanics, although they have seized the reigns with the charter format. Nevertheless, problems remain and employers are asking for employees with targeted skill sets, and most importantly critical thinking skills that lead to analysis, which lead to greater profit, or productivity. Skills that for these, and other predominantly low-income groups are not fully present.

Will the jobs of the future, be they be president, poet, or painter be limited only to the majority, burdened as they are by student debt and debate, or can the country regain the merits of the American era?

The task that lies ahead will not be easy with partisanship, and the ever clinging spectre of racism, but we must choose to do better, choose to embrace our future generation, for in the end we have no other choice, but to take bold and decisive action to once again, as Americans, recreate ourselves.

Donald Trump and crime in Chicago: more important than hamburgers

Donald Trump, formerly known as “The Donald”, came to Chicago recently, and talked about White Castle hamburgers and crime, but not necessarily in that order; and this was just after his remark that Mexico was sending all of its worst elements to the U.S.: rapists. drug lords and the like. While few rational people accept his views, one thing that rang true was his identification of the escalating crime in Chicago, and how it has affected the city’s reputation, and for this I have to agree with Trump.

Since 2010 there have been 12,000 shootings, and 2,000 dead, and 87 percent of those crimes were committed with handguns, and while there was a peak in crime in 2012, with 2,499 shootings 2013 saw a drop, the uptick in crime, has been significant, if not statistically significant, and the headlines have blared the bleak headlines,especially this past recent Fourth of July weekend when there have been 27 people killed and 3 wounded in less than eight hours. And, according to the Chicago Red Eye, a sister publication of the Chicago Tribune, “Several of the shootings across the city involved multiple victims: Four people shot in one incident in Austin, three shot in Albany Park, and two victims in shootings in the West Chesterfield, Humboldt Park, Old Town and Fuller Park neighborhoods.”

In the first half of the year 216 people were killed, notwithstanding the holiday weekend numbers, and with the warm weather approaching, or almost approaching, (with some below normal temps in Chicago), the figures will certainly be worse, as research has shown. Yet, it seems that there has been a definite uptick in violence , even if they don’t always approach those of prior years, when a pattern was much more evident..

While most of the crimes appears mostly in low-income, racial minority neighborhoods, many are not; recently there have been attempted rapes, and actual rapes, occurring on the city’s iconic subway system, known as the El, and smartphone thefts are such a frequent occurrence, that no one is really surprised to have one taken, often simply ripped out of the owner’s hands, but merely inconvenienced, and angry.

In posh Lakeview neighborhoods such as Wrigleyville and Boystown, the city’s “gayborhood,”.muggings, robberies, and theft are as commonplace the city's fabled ketchup-free hot dog, with purses and phones stolen almost nightly, sometimes hourly by the same perps, as the victims, often late night revelers, return home, or travel between venues.

There have been calls for the resignation of the city’s  police chief, Supt. Garry McCarthy, who said recently that it’s time to prioritize and start, “arresting the right people, at the right time, in the right place, for the right reasons.” Yet, many residents don’t see that happening. What they see are more of the same  crimes being committed..

McCarthy also said that he had “reduced crime by arresting less people,” and also the following statement: “We’ve made 17,000 fewer arrests over the past two years. At the end of the day, it’s not about arresting everyone and filling up the jails.”

So, what’s it all about?

Recent news stories have shown the city’s Logan Square neighborhood, on the near fringes of Bucktown, the home of the perennially hip,has garnered more homicides - seven killings -  than in Englewood, that has had the dubious distinction of almost always having the most homicide stats; but this recent Independence Day holiday saw Englewood post not a single shooting. A miracle, and a blessing for these residents.

The rest of Chicago saw 65 people shot, 10 of them fatally.

Many according to the RedEye are “isolated domestic-related or gang-related incidents,” but most according to the report are gang associated conflicts that are closely held by long established, the so-called legacy gangs that have traditionally held sway in the neighborhood.

No matter of the “how’s, if’s and why’s” that the chattering classes discuss, or the media portrays, the city’s reputation has suffered, and with tourism dollars a key part of the city budget, (no more needed than right now) Mayor Emanuel needs a plan to combat crime.  Overall homicides and shootings are up in 2015 compared with 2014: the first half of this year saw 216 homicides, versus 189 for last year; and the Austin neighborhood saw 19 killings from January through June, more than any other local community according to data gathered by the RedEye team.

McCarthy notes that Chicago seizes more guns than in any city, yet we see more shootings, despite his claim that “we seize seven guns to every one New York seizes and two for every one Los Angeles seizes.” With all due regard to the superintendent  this is an odd assertion after the publication of the latest crime stats.

One police commander has proclaimed that his latest effort is to use the same social media that the gangs use, to try and apprehend them. He has said that a saturation plan is in place to increase patrols in troubled area, as well as parks and the lakefront.  Creative? Targeted? At this point, anything and everything must be tried, because the reality of crime in Chicago is too strong to deny, or ignore.

Last week’s horrific news from Charleston, SC left much of the nation, engulfed in horror, anger and disbelief, as we reeled from the not only the savagery of the murder of the nine parishioners of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal, but the fact that their killer sat with them during Bible study, after they welcomed him in their midst, and as they studied and shared, and then the coda of violence.

When it was later revealed that the shooter, Dylann Roof, almost did not do the evil deed, because he thought that they were so nice to him, according to one of the survivors, left alive, so that, in his words, she could tell the world what had happened.

Roof’s goal was to cause a race riot, and he chose Emanuel AME because he could find the greatest concentration of blacks there, and he did including a state senator, a great grandmother, and a new assistant pastor, and other stalwart souls dedicated to the Word of God; but instead of a race riot, what happened was a unification of various people across the nation, as they stood, prayed, and even cried at the death of the martyrs, a vivid scene played out across the country, Sunday, the day that Emanuel opened its doors for worship, and welcomed all.

I've pondered, and wondered, here before, at what needs to happen in America to stem the tide of irrational and destructive racism, at how black lives have been shattered at the hands of those designed to protect them, and now, a young blond, almost cherubic boy, barely out of short pants, but brimming with hatred towards black Americans, and spewing racial epithets, and invectives,shot and reloaded his gun, even as many of those still alive begged him to stop.

And, now the church bells pealing, the crowded churches (mine was packed yesterday) and the angry, and bewildered wails of good and decent people. We know of course that this type of murder is not new, we know that the black church, “Mother” Emanuel, no exception, have stood as places where justice not only rolled down like a river, but where it was organized. We remember 16th Street Baptist Church in Alabama where three little girls, ready to be baptized, had their young lives snuffed out by a killer’s bomb.

We know even now, as I write, that a black life is being snuffed out, often at the hands of the police. What we have to contain in our hearts as well as our hands is how the irony of American ideals has not been shared in equality with non-whites, how black bodies are not safe, and our places of worship cannot now be safe places.

My pastor yesterday noted that in the Gospel, assigned for the day ,Jesus rebuked the storm on the boat that the apostles were on (Mark 4:35-41) Jesus did not just protect them from the storm (a dark and murky collective of evil and danger in the first century world) but that he protected them within it.

For those that survived the onslaught of the assassin's bullet that seems to be true. But, for the rest of us, we must learn to rebuke the anger, the hatred and the fear, and work, work for justice, for as President Kennedy* once noted, “I hope that every American, regardless of where he lives, will stop and examine his conscience about this and other related incidents. This nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.”

Kennedy also talked about the bonds of injustice, a fact that we still see today, whether at the hands of a monster, or the indifference of elected officials, or the illegalities of the employment, or real estate office, the injustice remains.

The blood that was emptied at Emanuel has not remained, but it must be lifted up, like the bodies of the martyr’s, it is redemptive blood, but this time to establish an even new covenant, one that has the promise of Christ for a new beginning, a battle against the moral crisis that we face as a nation today, both black and white. Is this not the blood of redemption, the redemption for a new beginning, and one that was brought forth by the driver that spotted Roof’s car, which led to his arrest, and that was ceded in the voices of the surviving family members, and as one by one they gave Roof their forgiveness, one borne of pain and sorrow, and yet one that in true Christianity forgave the killer?

Our work must begin now, and as I have said before anew; I am thinking of Revelations when we reach that heavenly place that our robes shall be white “in the blood of the Lamb.” (Revelations, 7-14). Lord we have had our lambs, and now we must be warriors in the revelation of justice, as we fight for freedom, for we are not free, if others around us are not. It is only when all are free, that freedom shall truly be ours.

As Kennedy concluded, “It is a time to act in the Congress, in your state and local legislative bodies and, above all, in all of our daily lives.It is not enough to pin the blame on others, to say this is a problem of one section of the country or another, or deplore the facts that we face. A great change is at hand, and our task, our obligation, is to make that revolution, that change, peaceful and constructive for all.”

Come, let us take each other’s hands, like sisters and brothers, as the heavens call out, and begin the work, the hard work of justice.

*Civil Rights Announcement

June 11, 1963

How long America? How long?

We've had a post Ferguson, and now we have a post Baltimore - terms that have entered our daily lexicon, as easily as a latte used to be considered exotic; but the recent death of yet another black man at the hands of white policeman makes me feel that the country must begin a conversation about race that has to end these atrocities.

The blame game is easy enough to play, but what is needed is a conversation that can begin with one another to help to change the sad dynamics of what is considered a Christian nation, but yet is acting anything but.that.

Probably one of the weakest arguments is that the deaths mean that the men have done something so horribly wrong that death was the only solution, and that the police had no other choice, but to kill them. In the not too distant past, this was used against gay men as they were bashed to death because they had supposedly made a pass at another man, and violence, even death, was the only recourse. It was called the gay defense argument, and an enlightened society later rejected it.

How long can some members of white society blame the victims? How long can we hear the keening of black mothers, aunts, sisters and grandmothers, how long America, how long?

But, yet for black men this standard is still with us and we see not only an embrasure of this sad folly, but in reaction, signs that say police lives matter. Has human life become a contest to see who can out rhetoric each other?

President Obama has reminded us, correctly, that these deaths are nothing new, perhaps to a younger generation; but the lynchings of the past are with us today, no longer limited to the grainy pictures of the history books; all that seems to be missing are the local white community coming to watch with picnic baskets; now it’s the internet and noshing, I suppose.

Dr. King’s dream seems to not have been deferred, but to have been cast aside as those entrusted with protecting us, are breaking us, beating us, and killing us, and then dismissing these acts as if they were lawful.

I remember the young immigrant in New York, in the not too distant past, whose body was riddled with bullets as he reached for his wallet. Is this policing, or is this legalized manslaughter?

Do black lives matter?

The media shows us the rioting, the misguided attempts, by some, under the guise of law-breaking, as protests; yet where are the cameras to show the poor schools with leaking roofs,and black children using a janitor’s closet as a classroom? Where are they as their parents live in substandard housing?

Where is the concern for the hopeless,as well as the homeless?

St. Paul wrote about the body of Christ when he said: “For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” (1 Corinth. 12-v.13, NIV) Yet the separation between blacks and whites, despite the presence of President Obama in the White House, seems greater now than it did 50 years ago. Surely, the better angels of our nature can begin to tackle this deep societal problem in earnest.

What role can each of us play, no matter how small to help America to live up to its founding ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

America as a nation must take a hard look at the systemic problems in its police departments, and eliminate the policies, both written and not written, that undermine the respect for human lives, because black lives do matter. Let us begin anew.