It is another lazy, too hot and humid summer Sunday, but I am nonetheless energized to submit at least one more guest column to the Daily Hampshire Gazette. My thoughts might have become clouded by my age, and it seems that nothing I have written and very few things that I have done in my life have tilted the scales of justice even a micromillimeter closer to equilibrium: the bad guys seem to be winning.
And while I realize that the United States of America has been until recently among the most magnanimous nations, I am concerned that the country I love is losing its way by failing to follow its moral compass as regularly as it did in the past. We were never perfect; but we did better than many other countries and cooperated more fully with the countries whose values were akin to ours. But I have no right to tell other countries what to do; so, in this column I address the government that endowed all of us with the gift of free speech, and the right to petition our government for redress. In other words, I am speaking as a family member to all my kinfolk who are concerned about restoring our sense of morality and embracing more fervently the ideals enshrined in our founding documents.
Pivotal scenes from three old movies come to mind: In “Bonfires of the Vanities” Morgan Freeman as a city-court judge succeeds to briefly quell the cacophonous mayhem among the litigants to deliver an impassioned soliloquy seeking order, courtesy, mutual respect and civility. The bumptious mob grows quiet as the judge speaks, and the movie audience prepares for a salvific transformation to be manifested. Then, after a brief interlude of silent puzzlement rather than inspired conversion, the mayhem resumes with even greater intensity. Isn’t that life?
I am old enough to recall newsreels showing the release of skeletal survivors of Nazi concentration camps, and the burned remains of a few of the more than six million men, woman and children who died because of their religious and cultural identities: murdered by apparatchiks who marched with precision to the dictates of the monsters to whom they were loyal. Never again, we all said. One would think that after the stark horror of mass human carnage we would relent in our thirst for conquest and violence. It seems, however, that we have learned nothing from history. In the aftermath of World War II, fingers were pointed at church leaders who were accused of not condemning Hitler and Mussolini. But in the past couple of years our most earnest efforts were like silent bells of protest unable to compete with the ringing partisan support for the emasculated elected officials who act like the eunuchs who when tending the infant emperor of China, were intoxicated by the aromas wafting from his chamber pot, as depicted in the movie “The Last Emperor.”
In addition to the atrocities of major named events — World War II, Vietnam for example — there is the continuing accumulation of atrocities perpetrated on a daily basis: which brings me to the third movie scene, from “On the Waterfront.” Karl Malden portrays a priest giving last rights to a murdered longshoreman whose body was found deep in the hold of a cargo ship. The priest looks up at the gawking longshoremen standing on deck at the edge of the hold, looking down as if into a deep pit. The priest reminds them that each time someone is killed unjustly, “that is a crucifixion.” The priest tells the onlookers that each time “virtuous men” remain silent about the evil done by bad people, that is a “crucifixion.”
I believe that elected office holders who profess to be Christians, would benefit from watching that scene and asking themselves whether they are perpetrating “crucifixions” when they put their loyalty to an individual ahead of their loyalty to the people whom they were elected to represent and to the U.S. Constitution. How can honorable adults lie about elections being fraudulent when they know that the absence of evidence resulted in court after court dismissing cases that alleged election interference? Are there no virtuous members on the right side of the aisle willing to break their silence about the evil being done before their very eyes?
To the “Christians” who want the Ten Commandments to be posted in every public school and who want Bible stories to be read in classrooms, I have a few question to ask. Does the first commandment’s prohibition of worshiping false gods apply to the false gods of greed, avarice, and power? Does honoring one’s mother and father include providing them with financial security, healthcare, a safe place to live and adequate food? Does using the Lord’s name in vain prohibit making false statements about scripture in order to discriminate against the people Jesus loved most: the poor, the homeless; the sick and the infirmed; the stranger and the outcasts? I doubt it because, frankly, too many who advocate posting the commandments are convinced they are right and that their interpretation of scripture is totally correct — even though there is disagreement among the various denominations regarding numerous passages in scripture.
At 85 years of age, I have lived more days than I have left to live. So, while I still have the ability to do so, I want my heirs to know that I spoke out to express what I believe about God and humanity. I love them both with my whole heart and soul. My prayer, which is among the deepest yearnings of my soul, is that our great nation will acknowledge its past and present shortcomings, while persevering in its efforts to build on what was good in order to grow even greater in the future, with fealty to the noble ideals that have inspired our democracy for the past 250 years.
I believe we are called to love God and our neighbors; to live the beatitudes; and to perform the works of mercy. As the prayer of St. Francis says, “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.”
Jim Palermo lives in Southampton.