Today I read an article that included a speech given by Dick Van Dyke in 1964 at the LA Memorial Coliseum. The speech was in support for the the Civil Rights Act. It goes as follows:
“Hatred is not the norm. Prejudice is not the norm. Suspicion, dislike, jealousy, scapegoating ― none of those are the transcendent facets of the human personality. They’re diseases. They are the cancers of the soul. They are the infectious and contagious viruses that have been bleeding humanity for years. And because they have been and because they are, is it necessary that they shall be? I think not.”
Regardless of who you vote for, of who wins the 2024 Presidential Election, I hope that we can take these words to heart. That we can move forward to establish a more united nation, reminded that we have far more in common than the things that divide us.
God bless the United States of America!
14 responses to “I Think Not!”
Thanks Greg!
Amen, brother!!
gc
Thanks Greg! Hope all is going well!
Excellent! Perfect timing.
Thanks Doc!
“Hatred is not the norm. Prejudice is not the norm. Suspicion, dislike, jealousy, scapegoating…” have many root causes, but envy is the deepest.
Look up Giotto’s painting of Envy. She is Invidia, or Envy.
Giotto’s portrayal of Envy has, in a bitter irony, been defaced by centuries of visitors, who scratched her eye out and gouged off the claws that used to curve from the fingertips of her tiny hands.
But there’s little doubt that the great artist originally portrayed her as blind or with her eyes sealed shut.
Giotto’s inscription beneath the image, no longer fully legible, reads in part: “Exposed here is blind envy…”
Invidia comes from the Latin invidere, with the verb “to see” (videre) at its core.
Look again at Giotto’s personification of Envy. Her jealous words turn her tongue into a snake that snaps back and bites her in the forehead. The horn on the back of her head, instead of goring someone else, stabs her. Envy’s ear, hypersensitive to good news about other people, has grown so large it resembles the ear of a bat. The flames of her resentment, like a swarm of angry snakes, roar out from under her dress.
Giotto wants us to realize that when we envy other people we only hurt ourselves.
Why are we so concerned with “paying their fair share”, how big a billionaire’s house or yacht might be. The top 1% already pay nearly half of all income taxes; the top 10%account for 75% of taxes paid. Envy can be the underlying cause of hatred, jealousy…
Being thankful for what we have and seeking ways to use what we have for others might be a better path.
Thanks Steve!
I was watching a documentary last night and one of the speakers said the opposite, but spun it in a way that stuck with me. He said that hate IS human nature – but what we need to do is not hate people, but hate the injustices, the evil, the things that do divide us. We need to become a single, strong country, united against hating each other.
Thanks Gayle! An interesting twist with the same outcome!
I totally agree with Dick Van Dyke and wish that the whole country felt the same way, but—-! we shall see soon enough.
Dave,
Perfect. So applicable to where we find ourselves today.
Dave,
Excellent. Dick Van Dyke will be remembered as a comedian. However, this piece reveals some outstanding thinking. And, it could not apply more appropriately than it does today
This is something that really moved Jan and I. Jan said you hit the nail on the head! This could not be more appropriate for our country today. Thank you for sharing with us!
Jim&Jan
Reminds me of the fact that the Constitution in the Preamble says “in order to create a more perfect union”….not a perfect one . Our democracy is always a work in progress.