The Age of Intolerance

     America, from its inception has always had its own form of intolerance. The Pilgrims so revered in our history were Puritans, the loathed English religious sect, that under Cromwell, ruled England after a civil war that beheaded the English king and practiced a form of religious intolerance that finally got them kicked out after yet another civil war that led to the restoration of the English monarchy. Hated at home they fled first to Holland and then finally arrived at Plymouth Rock in 1620. Not an easy group to live with, bigoted, intolerant, they first befriended the local Indians, themselves in trouble because European diseases had decimated them then ultimately stole their lands and tried to rid New England of its indigenous peoples.

     Since the election of 2016, the levels of intolerance between just about every group in this country has reached heights not seen in 50 years, maybe even earlier. It is as if all the gains we've made as a nation had suddenly been wiped away. Watching the daily news we see it everywhere in this country. However, it was this image, seen on Facebook, that has caused me to finally address, as they say, "the elephant in the room:"

No matter who and what you are, in an X-ray you all look pretty much the same!

     When you X-ray anyone, be it at the doctor's office or the TSA checkpoint, our bones are pretty much the same. Some taller, some smaller, some wider and others narrow. What we may see on the surface as "different" is very little different inside, unless you're a pirate with a peg leg! It could also include: Protestant, Catholic, Buddhist, Muslim, Hebrew, Taoist, Hindu. Them bones are pretty much the same.

     Even more interesting are the recent DNA studies of modern Homo Sapiens and their relationship, genetically, with the previous humanoid, Neanderthals. Where we were taught, as kids in school, that we had "killed" them for domination of the earth, it has been discovered that modern humans contain up to 4% of Neanderthal DNA. My recent DNA test said that I had 3.3% Neanderthal markers, that I was 100% European primarily of Northern German / French blood with a quarter of English-Irish-Scottish blood. 

     Studies have shown that Asian groups even have a higher percentage of that old DNA. The real irony is that Africans have very little or none of that old DNA "stuff" at all! Humanoids have been originating in about the same place in Africa for millions of years. No one knows why.

     When Spencer Wells came out on the stage, at a speakers talk I attended, and said, "There really was an Adam," the room was as silent as a cave." Then he added, "...and he was black!" The oxygen was sucked out of the room.

     To be intolerant, to find another cultural group less than equal, you have to be taught. I can remember watching my children as they grew up with the multi-cultural, multi-racial cast of friends that were in our lives. A local Rotary president when my son was born, my wife would have missed all the activities so we just brought him along. He was always up anyway, he thrived with groups of people, and still does. One African-American in the club took to him as if he was his own son. A big, fit man, standing at least 6'5", my son's arms would fly out to be held by this man. My ex-wife has a Kenyon AFS (American Field Service) sister from Kenya that always visited us to help with the babies. We had Hispanic, Chinese, Japanese, Black and Korean friends who we would see at our home, our work and our church.

     I just finished the book CHINESE AMERICA by Peter Kwong and Dušanka Miščevic. While this book talks about the treatment of Chinese in America, and it was pretty dismal, it also talks about all immigration to this country. They stated flatly that the United States of America was founded by white protestant men for white protestant men. One of George Washington's first acts as president was to sign restrictions on immigration.

     We've all heard about the Irish migrating to survive the potato famine there in 1847. What we don't talk about are all the other large immigrations that occurred and the way they were treated. Touring Ellis Island, a place my father and family went through in 1925-6, I was so surprised to see the posters, cartoons and newspaper articles of the 1910's and 20's decrying the massive immigration of Italians. Change the people and it could be Hispanics coming here to survive the oppressive regimes at home that the United Nations seems helpless to stop today.

     Our first massive immigration, a forced one, was the importation of Africans that were bought and sold as slaves. What many Americans don't realize was slavery was not outlawed in New York until 1795. Nearly every colony had slaves and indentured servants. The servants were freed after 7 years of labor. The slaves, until freed in 1865 after our own civil war, never were.

     In order to farm the land, vast lands unlike anything seen in the old world, you needed many hands. Since the Indians were killed through battles or more likely by disease, someone had to work. We all know the sordid tale of slavery and how it demeaned humans ... ultimately both slave and owner. Slavery in the new world was unlike anything ever seen in the old. That white men could say, as is written in our Constitution than anyone other than a white person was three-fifths of a person, well, it boggles the mind. Yet we did.

     Much has been written about race and culture and many other things about humans. What has not been written much about is that each one of us has the potential to change the world, to mate and create another human that come into this world unknowing but with the simplest needs to survive. Just like the old line about the church is wonderful but then you have to let in the people, ALL peoples of the earth have the potential to make a change, a difference and can mate and, as the Bible talks about in the Tower of Babel, differentiate. 

     When you look at that Hispanic fleeing to save the lives of their children, the Muslim praying, a man of color, any color, who appears different remember the image of those bones above. Inside we are far, FAR more similar than we are different. We need, as a people, as Democrats and Republicans, Christian and Muslim or Buddhist, Catholic or Protestant that there is more than binds us together than tears us apart. The tearing only succeeds when we let it.

     This is not to ignore the bullies of the world. There are many and even in my own lifetime we have lived through many. They must be confronted be it here at home or anywhere in the world. Yet, we have to opportunity to find what keeps us together as much as we do that tears us apart. My favorite line from the New Testament is when confronted by the adulterous wife and those who would stone her, Jesus utters, "He who is without guilt cast the first stone." One by one they disappeared and Jesus asks the woman to go and sin no more.

Thank you for reading my blog. I invite you to take the time to read earlier blogs where my emphasis is to explore the ways art and design affects our daily lives ... and always has. I share with you what inspires me with the hope that it will inspire you as well. Comments are always welcomed! 

Be sure to check my ETSY store ... KrugsStudio.etsy.com. I am adding many new and exciting, collectible birdhouses and craft items. Many of the items talked about here will be for sale there!