From Where I Sit

{Note: I wrote this fifteen years ago. I don’t know whether to be surprised or disheartened that it still remains so pertinent.]

The van was parked at the town end of the Derry, NH Bike Path. The logo on the side panel announced: “Northeast Passage, Explore the Possibilities.” Behind the van was a wheelchair and two of the slickest cycles I have ever seen. Sleek and low slung, they had a semi reclining seat and, in place of foot pedals and handlebars, substituted a combination hand ‘pedal’ and steering mechanism. They looked fast just sitting still.

Along the path the riders caught up to me and we fell into conversation about the cycles and their organization. Northeast Passage was founded in 1990 as a private non-profit organization to create an environment where individuals with disabilities can recreate with the same freedom of choice, quality of life, and independence as their non-disabled peers. Much of their work today provides services to injured returning war veterans.

I caught up to them again as they were preparing to load their cycles back into the van. “May I ask you a question?” 

“Sure.” 

“You work with people with handicapping conditions. What is the appropriate word or phrase these days?” 

One of the riders smiled and said: “You want to be ‘politically correct,’ huh?” I replied: “Well, no, not really. I just want to be able to treat a person with dignity.” That took the conversation in a new direction. The man in the wheelchair said: “Disabled, handicapped, whatever - they’re all labels, categories. Sometimes I call myself ‘a cripple,’ but it wouldn’t be a good idea for you to call others you see in a wheelchair that.” “How would you like to be referred to?” I asked. “Actually,” he said, “I prefer to be called ‘a musician.’” He is a pianist, and he saw that, more than anything else, as his identity. I would never have known it if our conversation hadn’t taken us beyond labels and categories.

There is a foul mood spreading across society these days. One can understand that people are legitimately concerned about the economy, jobs, the effects of natural and manmade disasters, threats to the nation, issues of safety, quality of life, and more. But it is disturbing to see the venom with which some people are screaming at each other about the issues. Dialogue seems to have disappeared and been replaced by name calling little related to truth, and air is filled with divisive labels designed to wound. In the political arena words like ‘conservative,’ ‘right wing,’ ‘fascist,’ ‘anarchist,’ ‘communist,’ ‘socialist,’ ‘left wing,’ ‘liberal’ are all typically used to attack someone who doesn’t share the shouter’s view. Sometimes we see the same maliciousness in the arena of faith and religion. It is poisoning our society and threatens to disable our capacity to deal with difficult issues in a complicated world. We must move beyond labels and categories.

I grew up at the close of the great depression, have fresh memories of World War II and the Cold War. Protestants and Catholics had nothing to do with each other, and most had never met a person of the other world religions. Race relations meant staying apart. Knowing what I know now, I don’t consider them the “good old days.”

What changed for me is that I began to meet people who were different and discover that they had “hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.” What changed for me is that my studies of scripture revealed that all persons are persons of sacred worth. What changed for me is that I began to discover that labels and categories can be used to lie and hide truth; that labels and categories can be used to injure and wound; that labels and categories can be used to create manipulating fear. When that happens, it is perverse, wrong and, worse, it can become demonic.

Beware of stale categories that are used, even designed, to wound, divide, and create fear. Stale categories are those names and labels that divide people in to ‘us and them,’ ‘better or worse,’ ‘good and evil.’ Stale categories are attitudes that confine us to narrow life experiences and make us suspicious of anything that is different. Stale categories are prejudices that stifle conversation and prevent us from finding common ground. At their worst, stale categories make people into adversaries and enemies. Beware of stale categories for they will, in time, destroy.

We read in the Letter to the Hebrews: “Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” [13:1-2] There are no exceptions in this counsel, so beware of stale categories. Any label or category that diminishes the worth of another person, diminishes us. As people of faith, we are called to acknowledge each person as a person of sacred worth - nothing more, nothing less!