Antidotes to bombardment

 

Playing with hands. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: Ibex73.

by Kathie MM

The corporate media assaults us with one awful story after another.

Hate crimes, racist incidents, violence against women, attacks on immigrants, loss of health care, chaotic governments, threats of fascism and terrorism.

Sometimes it’s hard not to feel frightened, stressed out, depressed.

But there are other messages in the media, perhaps more worthy of your attention.

Here’s one from Steven Singer.

He tells us that as a critic of charter and voucher schools, he is often asked, ‘Why should I care about other people’s children?’”

In his thoughtful essay, he explains:

“Children…. haven’t done anything to earn the hate or enmity of the world.… Many of them haven’t even learned the prejudices and ignorance of their parents. And even where they have, it is so new it can be changed.

“[Helping someone else’s child] wouldn’t hurt my child. In fact, it would show her how a decent person acts towards others. It would teach her empathy, kindness, caring. It would demonstrate the values I try to instill in her – that we’re all in this together and we owe certain things to the other beings with which we share this world.”

“I proudly send my daughter to public school…I want her to experience a wide variety of humanity. I want her to know people unlike her, and to realize that they aren’t as different as they might first appear. I want her to know the full range of what it means to be human. I want her to be exposed to different cultures, religions, nationalities, world views, thoughts and ideas….

I want us both to live in a society that treats people fairly, and where people of all types can come together and talk and reason and enjoy each other’s company.”

For me, this essay reverberates far beyond the issue of charter schools. It represents a set of goals for humanity sought by millions of people around the world for hundreds of years.  Let their voices, our voices, be heard.