Man In The Mirror

[Oscar Carter]

Face In The Mirror

LATELY, WE HAVE seen a flood of hate crimes. A white supremacist walks into the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and guns down a guard. An anti-abortion fanatic murders a doctor who provided women with unwanted and sometimes life-threatening pregnancies.

The list goes on, including violence against young women and others who dare to speak their minds in Iran. Hate and intolerance seem to spew forth from every corner, and there are numerous signs it’s getting worse.

Why? As a writer, an English professor at Norfolk State University and teacher of young people, I write frequently about hatred and prejudice, trying to understand it. Despite humans’ ability to reach out and love others, there is a deep, irrational desire in many of us to make everyone look just like the face we see in our own mirror—and not just the face, but also the emotions and beliefs, the politics, religion and gender orientation.

Whether we admit it or not, often we want everyone else to be just like us. To hell with diversity, which makes us uneasy and stirs us to rage—let’s be identical, interchangeable parts in a cookie-cutter world.

Here’s my belief: It’s time we looked beyond the face in the mirror and saw and accepted others—black, white, straight, gay, pro-life, pro-choice, tall short, mystic and Muslim. All should be accepted as long as they accept us and don’t wish us harm in return. In the end, the Golden Rule is best, ignored and broken as it may be.

John B. Rosenman
Virginia Beach
Reprinted from The Virginia Pilot
Sunday, June 28, 2009

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