First Amendment Rights-Safety and Security
Haves –Have Nots
According to the Webster Dictionary a word is “defined as a speech sound or series of speech sounds that symbolizes and communicates a meaning usually without being divisible into smaller units capable of independent use.” Dr. Tamar Kamionkowski teaches that “Giving a word or a name to something in effect makes it real. We continue to create the world by the names we give to people and things. If we label someone as untrustworthy or self-centered, we contribute to the way that person is perceived and treated.” As I watch our political landscape, I cannot help but wonder if the words we depend on to communicate are failing us. Are we truly creating the world we want with the words we are using?
The Mystics understood the limits of verbal communication. It was for that reason they turned to niggunim, wordless melodies to communicate when finding the right words had failed them. And yet as limiting as words are, they are the most effective means of communication that we have.
So how do we communicate about difficult topics that have so many nuances? Especially in a world when fast, short, to the point is better. Can one talk about complicated, nuanced topics in a sound bite or tweet? How do we share ideas knowing that people’s lives are at stake? How do we understand that labeling and dismissing the other only distances us from the truth as we choose to understand it? What is the world we are creating with the words we are using?
Every morning Jews wake up and say the prayer Baruch Sheamar. This prayer praises Gd for speaking and then the world coming into being. This Jewish belief that words create realities is imbedded in our tradition. If we continue to label people whose ancestry are from Islamic countries as foreigners whether or not they were born in the United states and people whose ancestry are from Christian countries as real Americans whether or not they are born in the United States we will create an American culture that is divided and dysfunctional. If we choose to dismiss and label people based on their actions without researching the motivations we will continue to create an “us and them” environment that alienates all of us from each other.
How do we create the safe, prosperous world we all crave? Do we focus on Mental Illness, Economic inequality, Hate, Security, Weapons of mass destruction, Gun control, religious differences, border control and/or Different national allegiances? Are we capable of compromise without giving in and settling or are our values and moral beliefs, so important that we should draw lines in the sand?
I was taught in graduate school that finding answers is easy. Finding the right question is crucial. In today’s world I must admit, I have many more questions than answers. As we search for answers in our society to these crucial questions may we remember the limits of our language to communicate and the power of our words to create. May we use our gifts to create the world we hope our children will want to inherit in the decades to come.