End Of List

 I find myself turning once again to that quote from comedian Denis Leary: “Racism isn’t born, folks. It’s taught. I have a 2-year-old son. Know what he hates? Naps. End of list.” That little truth bomb comes to us through the haze from 1992. 

It was true in 1962.

And 1892.

And 1692. 

I could go on.

But you would hate that. And don't we have enough of that just now. 

Jonathan Joss, voice actor and periodic guest star on Parks and Recreation, was shot and killed over the weekend. As I have stated here before, no one deserves to be shot and killed. If Mister Joss was murdered because of his Native American ancestry, that would have been unacceptable. If he had been killed because he was an openly gay man as his husband and witness to the shooting insists, that would have been just as intolerable. 

If Jonathan Joss had been shot over a parking space, that would simply fall into the same category of people who were victims of hate crimes. Killing someone requires a lot of hate, and we are currently wading through not just a wave but high tide of hostility toward one another. 

I teach the kids at my school that hate is a nadir, the bottom rung of the ladder. It means that there is nothing lower than the school lunch for which they have just turned up their collective nose. By contrast, they help me realize that the same kid they could not stand to sit next to in class will most likely be the one they insist on lining up next to when it is time to go to lunch. The lunch they can agree on. That awful barbecue chicken leg. 

No one is being shot over the limited choices in our cafeteria. 

Not yet anyway. 

I hope this tide starts to recede soon. I hate it.