I Still Believe That Americans Are Good At Heart

Anne Frank wrote, “In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.” 

I believe that Americans want what is best for the country and that a vast majority can see beyond their own parochial interests. I believe that most Americans are kind, compassionate, and empathetic. I believe they want the truth and are upset by those who would manipulate, lie, or deceive them. In spite of everything, I still believe that Americans have their country’s best interests at heart. 

Now, more than ever, it is difficult to argue that Americans are people of integrity and generosity. Racism, anti-Semitism, and hatred are growing. Rather than helping their neighbors, we see pictures of people flaunting common sense and endangering themselves and others. How could I say that these people are good at heart? 

The past months have been extremely difficult. Some of us have borne those challenges more than others. Some of us have taken more precautions than others. Some of us have faced the dangers directly and others have provided support. Some of us have ignored, denied, or defied the recommendation of scientists trying to contain this pandemic. 

We are afraid. We fear that we will get sick or those we care about will get sick. We long for a return to our lives before the arrival of coronavirus. We want to plan again. We want to leave our homes. We want to hug and touch again. We want to feel some kind of control. It is so frightening to feel out of control. Yet, we don’t all have the same response to this situation. 

When someone is drowning, they will cling to anything that is thrown to them. They are desperate. An anvil or a life preserver? A boat or a bomb? People in crisis don’t make measured choices or thoughtful decisions. They react instinctively. They are guided not by thought, but by feeling and instinct. They are not their best selves. 

While we may be tempted to rush to judge our neighbors and friends who are making different choices, I urge us to stop and consider: how can we best help them and the community? What can we do to ensure that people who are drowning are given boats and life preservers? What can we do to the stop the hate and start the healing, even before there is a vaccine? How can we be agents of positivity and well being? 

The first step is to see our fellow Americans for what they are: frightened and frustrated, grasping for whatever might help them stay afloat. If that means denying the reality in front of them or demonizing people who look different, it might be because they can’t tell a boat from a bomb. 

I am not excusing the hatred, racism, sexism, and cruelty. It is wrong. It isn’t going away any time soon, but it must stop and our racist structures must change. It would be helpful to have more of us on board with this idea. I believe, deep at heart, most of us share the idea that everyone should be treated fairly both under the law and beyond it. 

Which leads us to the key question. Those folks, those people without masks, spewing hate, believing absurd fantasies, and pushing us further into a dark age, what would ever convince them to treat everyone fairly? I don’t know. I know that “discussions” on social media don’t seem to do anything but further reinforce the ideas we already have. 

Compassion, empathy, listening, loving, kindness, caring, and integrity are not weapons, but tools by which our behavior can actively show “them” that there is another path. We can love our neighbor, even when our neighbor is working very hard to be hateful. 

It is not going to be easy. I don’t know who will win this election, but we will need to heal each other. I hope our leaders will help us do that, but I am not going to wait or depend on them. 

I am proud to be an American. This is my country and I am committed to helping make it the best it can be for everyone. My arms are open wide enough to embrace our diversity and disagreement. We can be united even if we are not in agreement.

Thinking about Anne Frank and Israel

Seventy years ago yesterday, Anne Frank wrote her last entry in her diary. Much has been written about her; she is the emissary of the Holocaust to millions. The line from her diary that stands out to me is her affirmation that, “in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

She goes on to say, “I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again. “ 

Then my thoughts turn to the current conflict in the Middle East. Now, my reader’s ears perk up. “Will he be pro-Israel? Will he be sympathetic to the Palestinians? Will he fall into the “there is blame on both sides” trap? Or will he, as Amos Oz did in a recent interview, try to analogize the situation to a neighbor shooting at your children with a baby in his lap?”

He is going to do none of these things.

I do not see how my views on this situation have an effect. I feel powerless. This post will not sway any opinions that are not already in place. In fact, recent research has disappointingly shown that people are more likely to stick with their misguided opinions even in the face of strong information to the contrary.

So it is not my goal to change your mind about Israel or the current conflict. Unless you are a leader in the current conflict, I am not sure that your opinion (or mine) is going to make much of a difference. So I am not going there.

Like Anne Frank’s story, the events in the Middle East affect me emotionally, intellectually, and personally. But I am not in the line of fire. My children are not in danger. I don’t get a vote. This horrible war is much more than a topic for Internet trolling and social small talk.

“So it doesn’t matter? So we should not pay attention?” says that reader voice. No. It matters. It is very important. As a person of conscience who values my religious identity (and my connection to Israel), and as someone who abhors any violent solution to a problem, this conflict cannot be ignored.

I can give money to organizations that will fund something. I can write letters to lawmakers and media outlets. And of course, that makes a little difference. But it will not bring about peace. I can quarterback and back with my quarters from a safe and comfortable armchair.

Simply put: my actions are not going to change the course of events. Only in my fantasies could I stop the Israelis and the Palestinians from heading down this ever more tragic path.

Like Anne Frank, I still believe that the overwhelming majority of people in the world, and in the Middle East, are good at heart. Like Anne Frank, I am optimistic about the future. But I do not look up the heavens and think it will just turn out all right. “Peace and tranquility” do not return by accident or divine intervention. Human beings make choices. That is what this is about. This about the power of people’s decisions.

My decisions have power. Not in Israel, but here. The horrible conditions of the Palestinians did not suddenly appear. The crisis was not born today. It was born of the countless decisions by many people. They may not have been aware of how their choices, like the ancient sediment and stone around them, can build up, stratify, and create canyons and mountains that are not easily crossed or moved.   

And their decisions still count. No path is fixed. The road can go many ways.

Despite her fate, Anne Frank’s message continues to move millions. Her words, her story, and her choices continue to have power. So do our decisions. For now, and for the future.