The Death Penalty for Being Different

In November of 1960 I was a 10 year-old 4^th grader at an elementary school in west Houston.  My father was a minister and I truly loved our conversations about theology, philosophy, economics and politics.  I saw my Dad as a true intellectual, a thinking man, a caring man, a man of peace.  He had already made his mark on the local Presbyterian Church by preaching a pro-civil rights sermon to an all white congregation shortly after our move to Houston in 1959.  The sermon triggered hate calls all night long for days and some irate members left the church.

The Spring Branch area of West Houston was a very conservative place, so much so that by the late 1960’s it became the very first Congressional District south of the Mason Dixon line to elect a Republican to the US Congress since the Civil War.  Our family income did not merit our residence in this area, but the church parsonage was there so that is where we lived after moving from Oklahoma City.  I enrolled in the elementary school the year before as a nine-year old 3^rd grader.  I had few friends.  I did not grow up in the area.  Breaking in was tough.  It did not help that my view of the world was different than virtually all of my fellow students.

November of 1960 was one of the most hotly contested Presidential election years our nation had ever seen.  Youngster John F. Kennedy, Democrat, was running against Richard M. Nixon, a stalwart veteran of the Republican Party.  On November 8, 1960, I wore a pro-Kennedy button to school.  I believe I was the only one to do so as everyone else who wore a campaign button seemed to be a Nixon supporter.  Everyone looked at me as though I had just landed from Mars.  And at the recess after lunch, on a hard-baked playground, a small group of 5^th grade boys jumped me and beat me up.  I was called “N-lover”, “Commie,” etc.  I was not so much physically injured as I was emotionally hurt and heartbroken.  Like any kid I wanted to be liked.  I wanted to have friends.  I wanted to fit in.  I did not like being the “new” kid, the “different” kid.  Clearly none of those wishes were likely to come true at this Spring Branch elementary school.  (I am grateful there was no Facebook or twitter at that time.  Heck, there were no personal computers, no calculators, no microwaves, no mobile phones with cameras, etc., etc.)  I never told my folks about the incident, but I celebrated the close Kennedy victory and walked with my head held high to school the next day face still puffy from the pelting I received the day before.  I was not jumped on November 9th.  Interestingly, Texas followed its long-standing tradition of voting solidly for the Democratic candidate and helped push Kennedy over the top.  Regardless, the message to me was clear.  Think like we think, believe what we believe, or suffer the consequences.

Punishing people for thinking differently, feeling differently, believing differently, even looking differently is not limited to immature, macho 5^th graders.  The angry church members who made hate calls to our home in 1960 were no different than the 5^th graders.  Nor were those in the inquisition, nor Hitler, nor ISIS, nor Al Qaeda, nor KKK, and on and on it goes.  I extend the promulgation of hate to those folks who persecute and revile homosexuals, or democrats, or the President, or UT fans, etc.  Hate groups are groups of folks who hate some other identifiable groups of folks and are willing to punish, sometimes kill, other humans beings because they are different. 

There are people in my life who are African American, Asian American, Jewish, homosexual, Hispanic, Muslim, atheist and Indian.  Each of them has a story about first feeling persecution for no reason other than their differences.  Sadly, just like those 5^th graders who beat up Kennedy supporters, these persecutors do not understand if persecution is OK for here and now against this group that there are places on planet earth where the persecutors will be persecuted for being the different ones.  Humans are incredibly diverse.  Always have been, always will be.  If you live within the safety of the walls of some majority where you live it would be wise to occasionally venture out rather than continue to remain inside and drip burning oil over the battlements on those who are likely a majority themselves elsewhere but you see as different here.  And if you say, “Let them go back where they came from” and believe that to be a viable solution, how will you respond when Native American Indians ask the same of you?

Attacking people because they are different is intellectually and emotionally equivalent to those 5^th graders.  Sadly, very sadly, we see it all over the world.  Immature humans in some state of power waging a war of persecution on folks who are different, think differently, look differently, believe differently.  The worst, in my opinion, are those who believe their hate is justifiable based on their religious faith.  Surely to believe in the persecution of a fellow human is not inspired by a deity of love and forgiveness.  I remain absolutely amazed that some humans are capable of such hypocrisy, such self-deception, such cognitive dissonance.  To claim one’s position as a persecutor is somehow morally blessed and thereby legitimate is by definition immoral.

We see such idiocy all the time.  Remember the Muslim riots in 2007 because a Danish cartoonist depicted Muhammad, even depicted him in a less than positive way.  Iran cut diplomatic ties with Denmark and initiated a contest for the best cartoon about the holocaust in retaliation.  Muhammad declared it was blasphemy to depict him and the Muslim world wanted us all to follow their rules.  We thought differently.  Are you aware that Charlie Chaplin made a wonderful parody of Adolph Hitler in 1940?  Hitler was incensed, but the film played on.  Remember the movie “Death of a President” in 2006 wherein a scene depicting the assignation of George Bush drew so much ire from conservatives that the film was pulled.  And now, the “Interview” is pulled because North Korean hackers threaten violence if it is shown because it makes fun of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.  Funny to me is that the very same people demanding that “Death of a President” should be pulled are now arguing that it was capitulation and a violation of the freedom of expression to pull the “Interview”.  Once again, persecution is in the eye of the beholder. 

Do we believe in freedom of expression?  Or, do we only believe that ideas, art, cartoons, etc. should be shared only if they agree with our point of view?  Do we believe that everyone has the solemn right to believe what he or she believes and that the government should not infringe those rights, or do we believe that is only true for people who think like me?  Is it OK to persecute and discriminate against people based on gender, age, religious belief, sexual preference, race, and ethnicity?  Is it OK for me to express these questions?  I argue that if it is OK to discriminate or persecute anyone because they are different from me then no one is free and valued as a human being.  I get it that we wish everyone thought like we think.  They don’t.  We need to do more than get over it, we need to learn what it is they think.

As a nation we enter a new era, an era where corporations can discriminate based on religious belief, where Texas legislators have introduced a host of proposed bills legalizing discrimination of one sort or another, and where Pakistani terrorists can butcher children on the grounds they may grow up to think like their parents.  And all this happens on the week the movie Exodus opens and the Interview is closed.  I find that very scary.  I believe anyone who can justify the slaughter of anyone, much less innocent children on religious grounds or on the grounds of their personal belief is not only very immature in their thinking, they are seriously sick.  It is the equivalent of wanting to fire people because of their sexual preference, their political party affiliation, or their religious beliefs.  I find no difference in the thinking of a school board member who sees his role as enforcing what he calls community values; a legislator who believes some discrimination is justifiable based on company ownership, the Muslim riots against a cartoon, the North Korean threatened attack against “Interview”, and the extreme slaughter of innocent children by Taliban terrorists.  And Bill O’Reilly just declared victory in the “War on Christmas because most Americans support Christian symbols of the season to be displayed at government buildings.  Really?  We are going to celebrate a government endorsement of a religious belief because it is the majority?  What are we thinking?  My wish for each of these folks is that they awaken tomorrow as an African American Muslim homosexual and see what happens to their view in the land of the free and brave.  Each of these persecutors wraps themselves in their own belief system and declares themselves justified in such persecution.  Each of these persecutors is no more than 5^th grade bullies.

It is my fervent wish that as a nation, as a people, we recognize and support differences, we defend the freedom of expression and the freedom of religion, we learn to find persecution of people who are somehow different from us as anathema to the notion of liberty.  Only then will we truly be the land of the free and the brave and only then will our international cry for democracy be real, not hollow rhetoric for implementing what we believe to be right.  I oppose implementing a death penalty as the Taliban just did against those whose sin is to be different.  I oppose threatening to implement such a death penalty as the North Korean hackers just did.  I also oppose any lesser form of persecution including bullies on the playground and bigots elected to office.

So, do I discriminate against those who discriminate?  Probably.  But my persecution does not go beyond my freedom of expression in this blog or elsewhere.  You are safe to think and believe differently from me.  I celebrate our human diversity.  Is the same true for me with you?

“Love your enemies and bless those who persecute you.”

Isn’t that a remarkable new way of thinking?