Integration Every Day, Segregation​ Never

When I was young, I thought of the church as the place of peace. Everyone, in my experience, thought of themselves as “spiritual Jews” because of Jesus. The thought makes me smile today. But I liked it because (in some odd manner) we “omitted” race or ethnicity. Everyone was a “spiritual Jew.” I know it sounds funny.

I remember one time, about three churches gathered for a special event. We all sat according to our church organization and church members. So the Korean brothers and sisters sat together, the Hispanics, well with the Hispanics, the whites with the whites, and the black members with each other. One of the pastors approached the podium and stared at all of us in silence for a few seconds.  He finally said, “What is this. We are all brothers and sisters of the same Father.” Everyone laughed nervously. So he forced us to integrate and exchange seats. He then smiled and said, “there. Now we can begin.” I think of that as a beautiful picture, especially with the recent issues of segregation, I believe we can call it that, segregation. 

The movie Save the last Dance reflects my idea of integration. What a great film! One of my favorite movies. Yes, I am a ‘90s’ child. Maybe we should all do a little hip hop here and there. Just kidding! What is my point for this blog? I honestly don’t know. I am so tired of hearing all these issues of segregation and violence.

1. Violence does not resolve anything.
2. Not everyone in any given culture or subculture is good or bad.
3. If you have not done any harm to anyone, then you shouldn’t feel guilty for the actions of others.
4. Yes, some have more advantages than others, but we all have the intelligence, power, and will to overcome adversity.
5. I don’t believe in “my people” because I believe in “my Earthlings” or “my humans.”
6. Emotions make up an important part of humanity. However, if we rely only on our feelings, we lose common sense and rationality.
7. Respect differences. People are not evil simply because they don’t have the same belief as we do. If they’re trying to kill you, well, that’s a different subject.

I decided to tune out of my social media and news because it’s harmful to the mind. I go out, and people seem upset or pissy, but it could be the heat too. I learned in my journalism class that during the 1970’s, that the news the audience received affected them tremendously. Depression was turning into a problem, and that’s when they decided to end the story with cute animals or end it on a positive note—and it made an optimistic difference.

Let’s not get pulled by the influx of adverse news aimed at us every day. Let’s not run with the crowd. Let’s step aside for a moment and analyze everything from multiple angles. And also, just step your mind aside at least for an hour every day from all this madness– or a whole weekend off. Yes, we cannot and should not ignore our real world. But the mind does need a bit of relaxation.

I understand that while not everyone belongs to a church or has a belief in any religion, the part that I most like about my story, the church members integrating, is the beautiful picture of respect for each other. Due to our instinct and survival skills, because that’s what prejudice is, a survival skill, we segregated. However, when the gaze of someone examining us came into play, we all stared at each other and realized our silliness. Sometimes we need a strong a leader to make us understand what we don’t see. Hopefully, can have a strong leader step up soon to help us all comprehend what we’re doing wrong today. Call me naive, but integration sounds like a much better idea.

Leave your thoughts & comments here, please and thank you. Have an awesome, blessed, and integration day every day!