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Dolores “DeeJazz” Jackson — On The Move

“Just as the human want for hospitality is a consistent, so, it seems, is human worry of the stranger” Ana Maria Pineda

I changed into taking a stroll to the nearby marketplace the opposite day after I crossed paths with a middle elderly woman wearing groceries lower back from the store. I did no longer recognise her but, people man or woman that I am, I wished her a cheery true morning. She in no way regarded up and handed me via neither answering my greeting nor, in any manner, acknowledging that she and I had been on the identical planet collectively, now not to say the same neighborhood. Apparently, in her eyes I was a stranger, someone to be feared or at least no longer relied on.

In this specific case, the woman might Maya Angelou Quarter have been deaf or her thoughts become some place else but I have had comparable studies earlier than and, in speaking to friends, they too have been given the silent treatment by means of ideal strangers. What’s going on? Have we end up so afraid of different human beings that we are afraid to mention whats up?

Is it ironic or what that in a subculture keen to proportion our intimate secrets and techniques on Facebook and different social media stores, we are getting much less and much less willing to speak to one another directly? Good grief, we are even afraid to shake fingers with each other without subjecting ourselves to a few form of anti-contaminant. We are getting a “no touch, don’t speak to strangers society.”

Author Ana Maria Pineda suggests, that our traditional openness to humans and new thoughts is being smothered through fear of the stranger. Insulated and isolated via our self built silos we’re building a fence round ourselves maintaining the immigrants, human beings of colour and others who are perceived as by hook or by crook specific than ourselves at bay.

C’mon parents, our world, as you could have located, is a long way from ideal however the general public aren’t ogres geared up to pounce on others. Honest. Your neighbor isn’t your enemy but a pal who desires to live within the identical sort of peace and harmony you need for your self. People who speak a one-of-a-kind language or have a one of a kind colour skin are not aliens from space however fellow human. Beings.

Nah! We do not need to have love-ins on each block but it’d assist to take into account to thoughts one in every of Maya Angelou’s signature quotes, “We are extra alike than unalike.” Not a bad element to maintain in mind next time a few “stranger” wishes you desirable morning.

The creator is the former chair of the Juvenile Justice Commission of Sonoma County, CA.He is a religious a