Respect

The shootings that took place in Arizona last week are just so disturbing.  It's difficult to put into words the range of emotions that well up inside at a senseless tragedy of this magnitude.  Anger, frustration, discouragement, grief...they all have held a place in my heart over the last few days.

I was in the car yesterday and happened to be listening to a radio program in which callers were sharing their opinions about the possible causes of the shooting.  Though most callers rightfully acknowledged the psychological issues of the shooter as the sole cause, it was deeply interesting to hear the impact that many feel the inflamed political rhetoric by political pundits and candidates might have played in pushing the murderer "over the edge."  Surprisingly, there was little blaming of one side over the other, but instead a general feeling that both sides (left and right on the political spectrum) have gone too far in vilifying their political opponents.

At one point in the show, a caller stated that it's time we got back to earning each other's respect.  She used the phrase, "Respect must be earned before it is given."

I deeply disagree with that statement, and maybe that type of thinking is at the root of this overall problem in our political atmosphere and society in general.  Respect for another should not have to be earned before we give it.  Inherent respect should be our behavior toward every other human being that we encounter, regardless of whether we know them, agree with them, or look and act like them.  Demanding respect to be earned before it is given simply ensures that we will withhold it unless they do and say what we want them to.

Part of what makes democracy work is a starting point of mutual respect for all that then allows us to have diverse opinions and debates.  Disagreeing with another human being over political philosophy (or theology for that matter) should never end with us dehumanizing them into "the enemy".  We need to recover respect for each other for sure...but not only after its earned.  We need to recover respect for each other as our true starting point.

How sad that it takes these deaths to get us to realize how far we've gone astray from that ideal.