Pope Francis emphasized the importance of dialogue during his visit to the United States. At each mention he stressed the importance of mutual respect. There can be no real dialogue until each party recognizes the inherit worth of the other. As long as I view you as less important than I am, there can be no real meeting of the minds.
Do you see me or am I just another statistic? Do you hear me or am I just another voice vying for attention lost in the crowd? We are often overwhelmed by the sheer number of homeless people, refugees, and migrant workers, children living in poverty or battered women that we fail to notice that these numbers are composed of individual human beings. We cannot wrap our minds around the overwhelming numbers. We must see each one as a unique creation.
We are staggered by the number of mass shootings in our country and yet individuals are murdered in our cities every day. We are numb to the numbers and to the frequency of these murders. The murder of nine people at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston got our attention and held it until another senseless shooting occurred at Roseburg, Oregon. After that shooting, I heard the brother of one of the victims calling for more guns. Doctor Carson, candidate for the Republican nomination for president, called for the arming of kindergarten teachers. There seems to be no end or limits to the madness.
What will it take for us to see each other as real flesh and blood people? We like to think in terms of blocks of people: Muslims, Communists, Nazis’, immigrants, takers. That way we are not confronted by individual faces. We can bomb neighborhoods and talk about collateral damage. Collateral damage is made up of mothers, daughters, sons, grandparents, aunts and uncles.
Pope Francis has it right when he calls for dialogue. There are no easy answers. We must learn to talk with each other not at each other. We must learn how to listen to what we do not want to hear and to what we do not agree with. This is hard work. It is much easier to get angry and to resort to violence. The next victim of collateral damage may be someone you care about.
