Prejudice - common but dangerous.

The last few days the talk on the news of the Mexican president's words, the new Arizona law, illegal immigration, etc, have brought up thoughts of stereotyping, racial profiling and prejudice.  A prejudice is a prejudgment: i.e. a preconceived belief, opinion, or judgment made without ascertaining the facts of a case.  Whether right or wrong, don't we all prejudge, to one degree or another?  When I was young, I remember wanting to grow my hair long and my Dad refused for a long time.  I know why now.  Long hair was a symbol of rebellion and lack of discipline.  That isn't fair because the hair didn't define me.  But, I do the same thing today many times.  I look at clothes and jewelry, hair and other things to make a prejudgement of someone.  "Don't judge a book by it's cover" is a great rule.  This is what first impressions are all about.  When we meet someone important or someone that we want to like us, we make extra effort to make a good impression.  But all of this is based on conscious choices of appearance or style.  We can cut our hair or change our clothes, so even though it may not be fair to judge due to how you look, it is something you can change.  However, in our world today many are being condemned due to their looks that they have no control over.  Is it right for us to prejudge someone because of the color of their skin, the color of their hair or eyes, the accent they have or religious beliefs?  That seems to me to be so hateful and unfair, Jesus said thousands of years ago to "love your neighbor as yourself".  He put no conditions on that, and the attitude of looking at someone and deciding whether or not I respect or like them because of their color or ethnicity is flat wrong.  Let's now talk about reality.  If I went to another country, and the citizens of that country had been plagued by terrorist activity and 90% of that activity was conducted by light skinned, light haired, blue eyed, males with protestant religious beliefs and they were from the part of the world that I am from, would I expect to be looked at differently.  Would the law enforcement of that country, even the fathers of families have the obligation to want to know what my plans are, why I am there?  I didn't do anything, why would I be lumped into this.  I have no hate!  But, someone did and they fit my profile, my stereotype.  Would I feel infringed upon, my rights violated.  In truth, absolutely not.  We have to be real here, the reason we are looking for people of a certain ethnicity, color and religious belief is because people that fit that profile have murdered and terrorized people the world over in the name of hate.  We wouldn't be very responsible if we didn't protect ourselves, the citizens, our families.  The same is with the people who are in our country illegally.  Many of these people are hard working and good people, but some are dangerous criminals.  The reality is that what we see is important in policing these problems.
What really bothers me about this and where the wrong in all of this really resonates... is that our children don't know this.  They see someone that is different in any way and they are intrigued, but certainly don't have feelings of hate or ridicule.  Where does all this hate and deep prejudice come from?  Someone teaches children this, some of it comes from experiences, but much of it comes from adults teaching children their prejudices and hatred.  My prayer is that we will teach them acceptance and love.  How dare we as parents and adults and children of a loving God, teach them any different.  I hope to live my life with a caring caution, a prudent diligence, but covering everything I do and every personal interaction with love.  God Bless us and help us!

The Best

"True success is not necessarily about being the best at all cost. It's about DOING your best at all times. If you do that long enough, who knows, you might just end up being the best."

Tope Popoola

Self LESS

First of all let me say ... I really struggle with this.  And I am not talking about being too selfLESS, I am talking about being too selfISH.  I am fortunate to have had great examples of selfLESSness in my life.  It is great to see the happiness that comes from being selfLESS.  People who are selfLESS are interested in others and their well being.  They are interested in spreading love and peace to all that they come in contact with.  On the opposite side of that, is selfISHness.  People that are selfISH are typically unhappy, take themselves way to serious and have very few people who really care about them.  They spread jealousy and hate to the world around them.  I really want to be more selfLESS.  It seems to me that both are a choice and both are habitual in nature.  Creating a habit daily to do something for someone else without them knowing about it is my first step on the journey to being more selfLESS.