An emerging culture of acceptance

By Patricia Hunt
Published: November 7, 2008

On Election Day I kept imagining my mother as she came squalling into the world on January 26, 1917.

Born at home near Burlington, N.C., she was put into the arms of a loving mother who was not allowed to vote. She was born into the segregated South. She has lived to see a woman become a serious candidate for the presidency and Barack Obama elected to that office. It has been an astonishing journey, but the path was blazed long before Europeans arrived on these shores.

It is already there in the ancient creation stories recorded in Genesis that boldly proclaim that tribalism was not “in the beginning.” In the beginning humanity was one.

It is proclaimed again by a Jewish carpenter from Nazareth who was no respecter of persons but touched the leper, the lame and blind, Greek and Jew, slave and free, male and female.

It is there in Islam as people from every corner of the earth come together in Mecca. The Buddha knew this path, as did Gandhi.

The people of the United States did not create this path but they have in fits and starts tried to follow it. It hasn’t been easy, but by God, we are still at it.

Certainly we owe a debt of gratitude to people who kept the faith when there was little or no evidence that Americans would ever embrace the equality Jefferson expressed in the Declaration of Independence. They were brown, black and white, Christian and Jew and secular and who knows what else. They were tenacious and refused to give up.

If you are looking for unsung heroes, I nominate educators. Every fall in classrooms across this country school teachers welcome children who come from different races, financial circumstances, political persuasions and religious convictions. They sit down in desks beside one another, and teachers tell them that they need to get along, learn from each other, and maybe become friends.

The stealth cultural movement in America has been mediation. Children in elementary and middle schools are being taught a form of conflict resolution that demands hearing each other’s stories, seeing the other person’s point of view, respect for all parties to the conflict and the search for solutions that can be mutually agreed upon. Adults are barely aware that this is going on, but it is changing the way young people seek to resolve differences. The young are not turning into moral relativists as many have feared. They are learning creative ways to hold onto their deeply held values and live with people who do not share them. We told them to “love their enemies,” and they believed us!

Colleges and universities tell freshmen that every student — regardless of social class, race, religion, political views, sexual orientation, national origin or physical and mental difficulties — will be accorded respect and treated as an equal participant in the educational enterprise. At my school we have even encoded it into a statement said in unison during ceremonial occasions:

We, the community of Mary Baldwin College, strive to celebrate humanity in all its wondrous and complex variation. Because we value diversity, it is our mission to sustain a community where all may flourish. We are safe to embrace our shared experiences and differences. To this end, we treat all with respect and compassion.

Obama captured the energy of young people, especially college students, in part because he was so familiar to them. They encountered his message of inclusion on “Sesame Street,” in secondary school and in college. They are desperate for the political system to live up to the ideals they’ve been taught. They are sick of political and religious culture wars. This is equally true of conservative and liberal students. They see in Barack Obama someone who gets this. Actually, John McCain gets this, too, even though his campaign didn’t always sound like it. The real John McCain was in his gracious concession speech.

As we were carrying out our election, babies were being born who will live to be over 90 like my mother. I wonder how the story will unfold over the next hundred years.

The possibilities boggle my mind.

Patricia Hunt, of Staunton, is a chaplain at Mary Baldwin College.