Learn something from Freedom Riders

As I was watching the PBS program, “Freedom Riders: American Experience,” recently, I was deeply moved by their quiet and resolute courage. Without popular support, in the face of disapproval from the federal government and the civil rights leadership, they were willing to literally lay down their lives to wake Americans up to the injustice of Jim Crow laws in the South.

Particularly heroic was the decision of the students at Fisk University in Nashville to pick up the baton and restart the bus rides in the face of certain violence.

Today Americans owe much to their bravery. As we honor those who served bravely and gave up their lives on Sept. 11, 2001, we would do well to reflect back on those few hundred Freedom Riders, little known and seldom honored, who endured violence, hatred and imprisonment — not because it was their duty or job but for the love of freedom and the hatred of injustice.

Americans today enjoy greater freedoms because of their sacrifice. And yet sadly we are still plagued by hatred. And hatred appears to be growing. Where there was once a respect for agreement to disagree there is now hatred of those who disagree. It’s an insidious evil seeking to pit us against one another, to divide us, to destroy our liberty, be we liberals, conservatives, homosexuals, heterosexuals, pro life, pro choice, atheists, religious, old immigrants, new immigrants.

We pride ourselves on tolerance of everyone — except those who disagree with our core beliefs.

Unlike those Fisk students, many of us have no moral foundation that determines actions and accepts diversity. So we accept the cant of our group and are not interested in hearing out the other side. We’re not interested in constructive dialogue. We’ve become shrill.

The Freedom Riders were acting upon the moral ground in the Bill of Rights and the inalienable rights of man. Today we are losing our grip on this. We only want to hear what we want to hear. This paradoxically threatens the very freedoms that enable us to hold divergent views.

We want to take away the rights of those who disagree with us. So different from the Freedom Riders.

Dan McCarty

Elgin