Red State/Blue State

Two phrases apply here. “Walk a mile in my shoes” and “There but for the Grace of God, go I”. If we simply adhere to these simple homilies that exist in our lexicon, we might go a long way to understanding how the other side feels on this issue.   In my view, I can definitely feel the anxiety and real fear that has been expressed in the black community. My point of view is seen through the eyes of one who has never owned a gun. I don’t like guns. I took a gun out to shoot one day at some property my Grandfather owned. Not only was I uneasy pulling the trigger, imagining what could happen if a stray bullet happened to hit an animal, my fears were instantly realized as a family came immediately into the vicinity and told us their children played in the woods all the time. They were not angry, as indeed we did have a right to be on the property, but it brought home to me some simple truths. If you don’t like guns, you don’t have to use them. If you would like to shoot guns, ...

Harper Lee in 2007 “Atticus was right. One time he said that you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough.”   In the ending paragraphs of “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Scout says to her father, “Atticus, he was real nice…” Atticus: “Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them.”   The words are prescient in light of the George Zimmerman verdict on Saturday night. I’ve often thought that one of the hardest things to do, and one of the best remedies to our ongoing race relation quagmire, is to cultivate the ability to get inside other people’s heads and see things from their point of view. This is the beauty of the film, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.” In it, we are able to see the world through the eyes of a child. Children understand things intuitively and can grasp emotional concepts much easier than adults.   In one scene early in the film, Scout innocently b...