Preserving Decency

A long time ago, when I was just a lad unaware that the world is capable of endemic evil becoming a pandemic. that actual event happened in these United States when Joseph McCarthy and his crony and Trump mentor Roy Cohn instigated hearing on Capitol Hill to investigate communist activity in the US of A. Specifically they targeted The Army although most of us only know about the Hollywood witch hunt. McCarthy was finally brought down when the Counsel for the Army, Joseph Welch asked McCarthy as the senator slandered a young officer; “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”

As I grew up, I learned about these things and also learned that we have to work to preserve decency in our democracy. I did not ever think that our democracy of die of indecency. And yet, here I am today, mourning, grieving, wailing over the death of decency as a guiding principle of our people. And everyone is infected, including myself. We all have our own ways of coping with what has just happened politically, but in that coping, we need to take a hard look at our own personal selves. Because it was not just a few far right crazies that brought about the birth of an immoral, unethical government. It was all of us; mostly by shrugging 0ur shoulders and saying things like “I don’t talk politics,” or “what can you do, that’s how things are.” There have been plenty of responses that were even more negative but what it all amounts to is a cancer of indecency.

I do not choose to attempt a solution to the problem of our current political situation. That will evolve in it’s own way. What is important is that, however it evolves, we respond with decency. And, for many of us, that involves finding out what decency means. We’ve lost sight of those simple things. Some people will think that decency involves sexuality. That’s the farthest thing from what it means.

Decency means giving your word – and keeping it; assisting your neighbors when they need help – even if we don’t really like them; respecting people’s privacy; telling the truth; making sure we have facts before we spread stories about people or events. Decency, simply put, and in the greatest beliefs of every spiritual tradition, means “to love your neighbor as yourself.” And more than that, Decency means that we take the time and expend the energy to learn what loving your neighbor really means – to them.

There are lots of books written on the subject of loving your neighbor. Go for the classics and those writers who build on the classics. Those are time tested, trusted approaches. but don’t be too afraid to explore further afield because those classics were often written when our understanding of who human beings are put together was sketchy, at best. The Torah, the Christian Bible, The Q’uran, The Vedic scriptures; when you dig into them deeply, you will find that they all give the same formula for seeing the divine in one another and thus how to love as the divine does. And there are mentors out there in the world: at the nearest monastery – of whatever faith tradition; maybe at your local church, synagogue or mosque; maybe even among your friend and family.

LEARN AND EVOLVE.

PEACE and LOVEYA,

Ron