And don’t they deserve to be represented in our Congress just as the rest of are? Those of us who are saints?
One person’s bigot is another person’s saint. But which one is which?
The question has been played out in our dysfunctional Congress where easy name-calling has taken the place of hard work and consensus.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia might have grounds to complain about bigot-abuse after Vermont Congresswoman Becca Balint of Vermont went off on her a few days ago on the floor of the House of Representatives. And Representative Rashida Tlaib of Minnesota might complain of bigot-abuse from Greene. In fact she has. We’ll get to that later.
Greene had introduced a resolution to censure Representative Tlaib, a Muslim, for participating in a pro-Palestine rally that Greene claims is “an anti-American and anti-Semitic Insurrection.” She also claimed that Tlaib “followed Hezbollah’s orders to carry out a day of unprecedented anger.” It took her five minutes to explain her resolution.
Video: Marjorie Taylor Greene Introduces Resolution to Censure Rashida Tlaib | C-SPAN.org
Balint was on the floor hours later with her counter-resolution that took her eleven minutes to sum up what she sees as Green’s sins.
Video: Rep. Balint Offers Resolution Censuring Marjorie Taylor Greene | C-SPAN.org
Tlaib has called Greene’s resolution “unhinged” and has said it is “deeply Islamaphobic and attacks peaceful Jewish anti-war advocates” who want a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza. “I will not be bullied, I will not be dehumanized, and I will not be silenced,” she said. “I will continue to call for ceasefire, for the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid, for the release of hostages and those arbitrarily detained, and for every American to be brought home. I will continue to work for a just and lasting peace that upholds the human rights and dignity of all people, and ensures that no person, no child has to suffer or live in fear of violence.”
This exchange puts us in mind of a song from the motion picture South Pacific.
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein were attacked, especially in the South, for putting the song in the musical. James Michener, who wrote the story in his book Tales of the South Pacific on which the play was based, told Hammerstein biographer, “The authors replied stubbornly that this number represented why they had wanted to do this play, and even if it meant the failure of the production, it was going to stay in.”
When the play was presented in Georgia, State Representative David C. Jones considered the son a threat to the American way of life because it sanctioned interracial marriage. Some suggested the song was inspired by Communists.
Hammerstein wrote to one critic, “I am most anxious to make the point not only that prejudice exists and is a problem, but that its birth in teaching and not in the fallacious belief that there are basic biological and psychological and mental differences between the races.”
The play came out in 1949. The movie came out in 1958. The song was kept for the film. It has been recorded many times since in various forms. And the lyrics are still powerful. And accurate.
You’ve got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You’ve got to be taught
From year to year,
It’s got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff’rent shade,
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You’ve got to be carefully taught
In today’s world we see the accuracy of this song being played out in so many places, even in the halls of our national government and in some of our statehouses. We see blatant efforts being made to make sure our children—and even we adults—are “carefully taught,” and we are seeing some places, including some of our pulpits, where edicts and laws are being issued to make sure our children and our grandchildren are “carefully taught” to “hate and fear.”
Maintaining silence in the face of those who profit personally or politically by that careful teaching should never be an option. Let us be unafraid to learn our history, warts and all as Tom Benton would put it.