Groups need to work together

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Tulips lined sidewalks, a pine canopy swayed protectively overhead and the whispers of the Red Cedar River crawled in my ears as I skipped pleasantly to class, happy to be alive — until I saw it.

“Fake” struck again.

A formerly modest Bible passage delicately decorating the bridge was crossed out and trampled with scathing additions. The “artist,” who signs their work “fake,” used a religion’s beloved purpose as a canvas for their resentment.

They also proceeded to cross out other students’ sidewalk tattoos including, “I love loud radical feminists.”

If it is X’s this “fake” likes, I would like to offer 10,000 other acres on this campus for their disposal. However, the ravaging of students’ heartfelt expressions seems backward if humanitarian progress is this person’s intent.

This energy is rejecting one’s personal potential for innovation and elevation, reducing it to a mere coloring contest. Certainly, anger requires no creation or dedication. On the contrary, it was the first of our emotional impulses here on earth.

I, too, am to blame, as I have repeatedly found myself in bouts of pretentious snobbery with my roommates discarding “that” crooked nonprofit agency, or despising the mediocrity of “this” political agenda. I was so concerned with why the other arguments were ignorant and egocentric that I had let it consume me. I would project the mass of Republican voters into the one foul YouTube portrayal of a conservative man speaking on President Barack Obama, “If it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck, it must be a terrorist.” Yes, being angry and superior was enjoyable, but I found no durable joy from this.

I believe we can unify. Although I certainly can’t imagine bigoted Sarah Palin fans and granola-eating feminists walking hand in hand at the same protest in D.C., I do think that there are things both parties could agree on, and certainly the less extreme voices in between.

When taking something such as stem cell research into account, one could look at each side of the argument and certainly label them negatively, deciding one side simply doesn’t care about finding medical cures and the other side is composed of baby-killers. However, this same person could decide to truly open their mind and be shocked at the similarities of these arguments.

Both sides of the issue are passionate about aiding humanity. I am sure both groups could agree that upholding the dignity of human life is incredibly important. Likewise, both groups would recognize the overt need for cures to medical diseases or conditions.

Simply by recognizing this similarity, there already are unifying issues both groups could work for. Concerted efforts toward finding alternative means for cures could be a combined fight, and certainly this force would be much more powerful than two sides that perpetually look for the other’s weakness only for the chance to tear that argument down.

As it stands right now, mobs of people will leap at the chance to tear down yet another Catholic priest, or an aggressive speaking woman. Pro-choice voters are penned “heartless baby-killers,” orthodox faiths are considered sexist, the National Rifle Association consists of a bunch of madmen with guns and a man writing a pledge for modesty is a “victim blamer.”

We take isolated incidents and flaunt them as atrocious truths. We’re plucking eyes out with ferocity making “the whole world blind,” when we could be seeing our unified affection for humanity.

Ralph Ellison puts it beautifully in his novel “Invisible Man” when he wrote, “Did you ever notice, my dumb one-eyed brothers, how two totally blind men can get together and help one another along? Up to now we’ve been a couple of men walking on opposite sides of the street. Someone starts throwing bricks and we start blaming each other and fighting among ourselves. But we’re mistaken! … I say come on, cross over! Let’s make an alliance! Let’s make a miracle! Let’s take back our pillaged eyes! Let’s reclaim our sight; let’s combine and spread our vision!”

A bit intense for mere sidewalk controversy? Perhaps.

Tempting as busting out some Beatles, “Come Together” lyrics was, I found this far more applicable.

My view is a positive one. In our diversity comes a unique strength that only comes from the buffet of cultures in the U.S. With the perpetual collision of differing opinions can come a most superior opinion, a third one.

Don’t renounce your beliefs, but seek truth for everybody. Look at the beauty of amassed minds all attempting to find the best lives for Americans in their own way. Treasure the opportunity to be living in one of the broadest cultures in the world.

And make those sidewalks colorful.

Casey McCorry is a State News guest columnist and English senior. Reach her at mccorryc@msu.edu.

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