There’s no need to list the present negatives. We know them. Drugs abuse and horrific violence have seeped out of the big cities and now stain the smallest, remotest communities nationwide. What were once considered basic human values — honesty, respect, honor and the like — are held suspect if not ridiculed outright.
Even so, then and there was far from perfect. And here and now has some things going for it. Let me give four examples:
1. Physical and Mental Disabilities
When I was growing up there was a kid in my neighborhood who was mentally retarded and hard of hearing. I realize that now. At the time, as a fellow kid, I knew he couldn’t hear much, he talked “funny,” and he didn’t go to school with us.
Now, looking back, I strongly suspect he didn’t go to school at all.
I assume he could have attended a state-run boarding institution, but his parents didn’t want that. He didn’t get into trouble in the neighborhood. (All right, no more than the rest of us.) But I can’t really picture him roaming the alleys and back yards without his younger brother, who acted older than he did.
Disabilities — handicaps, in the parlance of that era — were pretty much a family affair. A family’s business. Hush-hush.
There weren’t smaller school buses appearing every morning to take special education children to school. “Mainstreaming” — seeing to it that a kid with a disability was in a class with all the other kids whenever possible — was unheard of.
2. Race
I don’t think we’re ever going to eliminate racism. Racism is a sin. And sin has been a part of the human condition since the time of our first parents.
It could be validly argued that I’m on shaky ground here. That I’m hardly qualified to speak on this since I’m a white guy. The same would apply to upcoming point #3, on females.
Still, the issue hits a little closer to home — hits my immediate family in a particular way — because my oldest child, now 25, is racially mixed. He’s black and white. He knows that, in many ways, it makes him a target. His fair-skinned, blue-eyed younger brother need never fear being pulled over for “DWB” — driving while black. In some areas, with some cops, that’s a possibility for my oldest child.
The anti-discrimination laws may be on the books but it’s still more likely he’s going to be followed throughout a store by a clerk. And it’s less likely he’ll be offered help by that employee.
So where’s the good news here? First, there are those laws. People of color have more legal recourse than in the past. And at least some have more opportunities. It’s possible now to be African-American and elected mayor of a major city. To be Chinese-American and voted in as governor.
To use one’s God-given abilities the way God intended. To not be forced to, borrowing words from poet Langston Hughes, defer one’s dream until it dries up, festers, stinks, crusts over, sags or explodes.
3. Gender
Secretary. Nurse. Teacher. If Catholic, nun. In many ways that was the list of possible jobs for females not too long ago. There were exceptions, of course, but they were just that — exceptions.
Few women in college. Fewer still in graduate school.
On the plus-side, more women who wanted to be stay-at-home moms were able to do so. On the minus, those who didn’t want that didn’t have much choice.
Again, the good news is the greater opportunity to use one’s gifts, one’s talents. Yes, every dual-career mom knows being both a mother and a worker-outside-the-home is a life filled with challenges. Even so, it’s right for some.
And for the women who aren’t moms, the expanded opportunities in the workplace are a blessing. For them and for all of us.
4. Religion
In the “good old days” a Catholic didn’t set foot in a Protestant church. And vice versa.
For most of us, ecumenism was unknown. And the idea of “interfaith” couldn’t be imagined.
Now ecumenism (the cordial and respectful relationship among Christian denominations) and interfaith (the same among different religions) are no longer out of the ordinary.
Certainly not after Pope John Paul II’s 1986 World Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi, Italy, which included the leaders of religions from around the globe. Never one to water down the truth the Catholic Church presents, he didn’t hesitate to welcome and pray with others who seek God with a sincere heart.
So… election year or not, how do we keep and enhance what was good way-back-when and nurture what is good right now? How do we further eliminate what was bad way-back-when and eradicate what is bad right now?
To accomplish either, we need to look honestly at what was and what is. And we need to act boldly as we further God’s kingdom coming on this earth.
Just as in so many ways today looks good compared to yesterday, tomorrow can be better still. That can happen, if we choose to make it happen.
As Catholics, how can we choose otherwise?
