There is light at the end of the tunnel and it's not an oncoming train.
It's love. Yet it's elusive.
As hard as it is for us to realize or do, we should love our neighbor no matter how rude and crude that person is.
It's the practical modern day interpretation of the age-old imperative "turn the other cheek."
Why am I so happy and optimistic?
Reverend Louis Farrakhan's hardened and hateful heart is being transformed. After a near-death experience, he's now advising followers to love people from all ethnic groups.
Farrakhan's redemption reminds me of Malcolm X's, although Louis' came much later in life. You may recall Malcolm denouncing most, if not all, whites as "blue-eyed devils."
Although Farrakhan's rehabilitation is wondrous news, all is not well. A 60-year old man caught red-handed and charged with bank robbery in Pennsylvania recently pleaded innocent by means of "cultural insanity."
His defense is that all his life he'd been exposed to and beaten down by institutional racism. He even recalls a magazine picture his mother showed him as a teenager of a murdered black man as merely one of the myriad cultural stimuli with which he's been bombarded. He finally snapped and robbed the bank. Was this cathartic act needed for his mental health?
So here are two men, the Reverend and the Robber, contemporaries, moving in two separate and opposing directions.
Will the world listen to Farrakhan's new message? How will the media report it? Will he have credibility -- with whites or blacks? Will he be forgiven for past rhetoric and actions?
I think about how adoring baseball fans are now calling for Pete Rose's reinstatement into official baseballdom, i.e., entrance into its Hall of Fame. If folks can forgive a lying and conniving gambler, can they do the same for Farrakhan?
My optimism is tempered by realism and our past track record of getting along with each other. Or should I say not getting along.
I live by the credo of trust but verify - with prayer. Apologies are due Ronald Reagan for plagiarizing his approach to Soviet rapprochement. Of course, I added the prayer part, which is the most important. We aren't likely to love each other, warts and all, without some divine intervention.
I've been one of Farrakhan's harshest critics, especially after his two-hour plus diatribe at the Million Man March. All of what Jesus spoke in the Bible could have been said in five fewer minutes than Farrakhan's rantings that day and look at the comprehensive messages of love, forgiveness, and faith which Jesus left. All Farrakhan's speech left with was pain and hurt.
Perhaps Farrakhan had something to say. Look how difficult it was for Jesus to remind people - and even those of his own race and religion - of their faults. He had to use relatively non-threatening parables. But he still got into trouble. They knew of whom he was speaking.
Maybe things will be different this time. We're a big worldwide community, connected by the Internet and e-mail. We can talk with each other at the speed of light. Misunderstandings should be able to be cleared up rapidly, right?
Under the best of circumstances, even with our ever-maturing Information Age, real progress will be difficult. History is not on our side.
But we have Louis Farrakhan. If he can progress and mature in 'agape' love, surely the rest of us can.
If that happens, this'll be the Miracle of the New Millennium. It may take most of the next 1,000 years to succeed.
Only time will tell.
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Fred W. Apelquist, III, M.Ed.
Approximately 600 words.
(c) 2000