Respect for others was the founding principle of America.
By Josh Moon
America is a mess right now.
Come on, you know it. No matter which side of the various arguments you land on, you know that much is true. You can still love the place and admit that things are royally screwed up.
Look around. Look at what’s happening all over this land of ours. The arguing, the bickering, the mistreatment, the fear, the anger, the distrust, the destruction, the disillusionment, the sadness, the hopelessness, the pain and the terror.
It all boils down to, essentially, one thing: A lack of respect.
A lack of respect for each other. A lack of respect for others’ beliefs. A lack of respect for another person’s situation. A lack of respect for intelligence. A lack of respect for human rights. A lack of respect for American rights.
I could make a strong, strong case that respect, more than anything else, is what America is built on. That it was THE founding principle. More so than freedom, and certainly more than equality. It was a respect for others. It was built into our laws.
Because it’s one thing to say all men are created equal and granted certain rights. It’s quite another to ensure that equality and rights are protected through laws and fundamental ideals. To guarantee through the force of law that, while you don’t have to agree with someone else’s beliefs or lifestyle or decisions, so long as those things don’t violate other laws, you do have to respect their rights.
In America, it is not enough to say that you have religious freedom. Our founding documents and our courts have ensured that we also respect your rights to practice that religion and everyone else’s rights not to be forced to practice that religion.
This is not a “Christian nation.”
It is a nation that respects the practice of all religions.
If we practiced that respect in all walks of life, it would solve literally every problem we currently have.
Take immigration, for example. There are two very basic, very fundamental sides to the immigration debate, and they should each garner respect from the other side.
Because it is perfectly reasonable to say that we should respect the immigration laws of this country and enforce those laws, both at the border and within our communities. But it is equally reasonable to say that we should be respecting the rights of those immigrants to due process, and we should respect the rule of law that requires reasonable suspicion for stops and detainment, and we should respect the laws that guide us on how to properly handle immigration cases.
And most importantly, we should make sure that we are respecting the people involved. There’s absolutely no reason not to. The overwhelming majority of immigrants are good people who just want to work and be left alone. We know this by the fact that the crime rate among the immigrant population in America is significantly lower than the crime rate of native born Americans.
But even if your position is that we should be removing those peaceful, law-abiding, hard-working folks from the country, there is certainly no reason to do so by violating their rights, our laws and basic common decency.
Respect, though, is in very short supply, because respect doesn’t get you anger. And without anger, some people don’t get attention. And without attention, some people can’t ascend to positions of power.
There was a near-perfect example of this Sunday night during the Super Bowl, when a Spanish-speaking performer, Bad Bunny, headlined the halftime show. There was no reason at all for outrage over this Puerto Rican gentleman’s performance. It’s not like his name appeared in files related to a child rape ring or that he’d been found guilty of sexual assault or that he sang about liking young girls.
No, the outrage stemmed from the fact that Bad Bunny performs almost exclusively in Spanish.
Now, if we respected each other, even if—like me—Bad Bunny isn’t your taste in music, you would respect the decision to recruit him as the halftime performer. The guy’s the top selling artist in the world, and despite not typically performing in English, he was the fifth-most popular artist in America last year.
But instead of finding something to do for 20 minutes—y’all don’t have trash that needs taking out or a dog to feed?—and just respecting that the kids have different tastes now, we had a full blown, grown-up hissy fit among the red-hatters. The man currently occupying the White House said the performance was “an affront to the greatness of America and doesn’t represent our standards of success, creativity or excellence.”
Um, what?
The best selling artist in the world put on a creative, perfectly fine halftime show that contained a message of love and respect for everyone. If that’s an affront to America, we’ve truly lost the thread of what America should be.
Which, of course, some of us in this country absolutely have. Because some in this country have lost respect for anything or anyone who dares think, dress, speak, believe, act, read, love or vote differently than they do. They have somehow come to believe that freedom means the right to force others to do things the way you’d like them done, and to never be confronted with anything that upsets their delicate sensibilities.
That’s not the American way. That’s not America. That’s a land of snowflake busybodies who need to shape everything and everyone to fit their narrow worldview, instead of simply minding your own damn business.
You don’t have to like everyone or how they act. Lord knows I do not. But up until the point you start infringing on someone else’s rights, I don’t really care.
Because while I wish you would choose not to be ignorant, I certainly respect your right to choose it.