As a child in the schoolyard, I remember that one of the worst things one could do was to call someone “out” of one’s name; supplanting the name with a curse or an insult.
Today, as I listen to the language of opponents, virulent – not simply uncivil, but untruthful – speech fills the air. And few seem able or willing to distinguish between the actions of others and their perceptions about those actions and the people doing them.
Thus, repeatedly, we arrive afresh at an ageless, sorrowful reality: One’s belief or rather prejudice about another becomes the truth about another; giving (self-justifying) reason not to engage another.
© 2022 PRA
#incivility #prejudice
occasional observations of mind and heart, soul and spirit 
Thank you Paul! I keep praying that we can get back to engaging the other instead of writing folks off and claiming we know truths about them just because they are different from us! We never know what we might learn about them and ourselves too if we just give dialogue a chance!!
Much love!
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My dear Loretta, I have come to place of acceptance — both — that there are some of us who resist engaging with “the other” — and — that there are some of us who do engage with “the other.” I am in the latter camp of folks. I know that you are, too. Now, when I am most dismayed or despondent about the former group, I strive mightily not to resist engaging with them. For that, for me, would be to do what I, with you, continue to pray: “(T)hat we can get back to engaging the other instead of writing folks off and claiming we know truths about them just because they are different from us!”
Love
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