Fight fear by building community

Thank you for the editorial in the Sunday, Sept. 6 paper. Your note, "The partisan divide has never seemed wider than it does today," is further emphasized by a comment made during the health care debate. One observer said, "I have never seen the country so angry," and he was speaking not about the debate but about a fundamental attitude prevalent in the culture.

The list of problems that folks are angry about seems endless: the war and lives lost, violence in our neighborhoods, gay/lesbian civil rights, environmentalists and climate change, terrorism, Palestinian/Israeli conflict, torture, hate crimes, immigration, government control, economic recession and national indebtedness and so forth.

There is, some have said, at least one common denominator for much of the anger: fear. When we are deathly afraid - we strike out in anger. We want to fight. And for some, flight and escape is also a common response. I understand that feeling: I sometimes would like "a cottage small by a waterfall and let the rest of the world go by."

There is another possibility - and it is difficult to articulate and more difficult to carry out. Our congregation has a mission statement that reads that we wish to be "a place to deepen faith, proclaim peace, embrace community, welcome others, and serve our neighbor in the compassionate spirit of Jesus." Yes, we are a Christian community. But many of our interfaith neighbors, in their historic traditions, have the same mission - to respect and serve our neighbors. These interfaith communities include Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu and others.

It may be naive, but it is my wish that our nation and our world can be blessed by leaders and citizens who genuinely wish to develop and sustain a caring attitude for our own country and for the world.

Ralph G. McFadden

Elgin