"NEIGHBORS OR FASCISTS?"

“NEIGHBORS OR FASCISTS?”

            While we were traveling in Boston after our trip to Princeton, we went to see the Mr. Rogers movie entitled “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”  It was powerful and moving.  The approach of seeing the “other” as potential neighbor rather than potential enemy obviously has deep resonance in these Trumpian days when the ”other” is not even remotely close to being seen as neighbor (unless they are Vladmir Putin).  In these days, the “other” is definitely seen as enemy.   Mr. Rogers urged a different approach, and I have seen many comments on this movie, all wishing that we had his voice now in the midst of the strife and the stoking of the primal fears that are within us all.

            This year is the 50^th anniversary of his first show, and the movie did a fine job of showing the evolution of the show and the thought of the man behind it.  What struck me the most about the movie, however, was its narration of its first week, a week in which we are introduced to the ruler of the neighborhood, King Friday the 13^th.  It is the summer of 1968, and violence and changes and struggles are rampant in American culture.  In light of this, King Friday the 13^th orders that a wall be built around his castle to keep the “bad” people out and to keep any changes from occurring.  He also orders signs to be posted:  “No Changes!!  No Changes!!!” 

            The result of this wall-building on Mr. Rogers’ show in 1968 was not the safety and tranquility that King Friday the 13^th sought, but rather an increase in fear and a dissolution of trust between the neighbors INSIDE the wall.  It was eerily prescient of the time in which we now live, and one could only marvel at the genius of Mr. Rogers, whose emphasis on being neighbors caused him to understand how much we would resist this idea of neighborliness, no matter the era in which we live.  The idea of seeing others as “neighbor” requires that we bump up against the categories which the world uses to separate us – race, gender, culture, nation, sexuality, income level, and I have to sadly add, religion.  Israel’s passage of the Jewish state law, Trump’s and the pandering Republicans’ emphasis on the danger of the “other,” Europe’s rise of anti-immigrant political groups, the radicalizing of some Islamic groups, white Christian support of separating children and their families at the border – these and many other developments point to the power of fear to push us towards seeing the “other” as enemy rather than neighbor.   Walls go up in response to fear, and I wish that I felt that Donald Trump had the wisdom to see the deep irony of the former Republican hero Ronald Reagan telling the Soviet Union to tear down the Berlin wall, while Trump seeks many more dollars to rebuild that same wall on the Mexico border.    

            I don’t think that the Trumpsters are capable of this, but King Friday the 13^th had the wisdom to tear down the wall and to start a newer and better way of relating to others.  I’m hoping that a stinging political defeat this November will make President Trump recalibrate as King Friday the 13^th did.  Yet, there are two problems with my hope.  First, there is no guarantee of a stinging political defeat in November.  It will require a huge voter turnout, and I hope that I am wrong, but right now I’m wondering if we can do it.  Please prove me wrong by registering to vote yourself, getting your friends, colleagues and neighbors to register – and get them to do the same for their circle of friends.  Then work to make sure that you and all of them vote in the November 6 election.  Vote for moving us back towards seeing one another as neighbors rather than as enemies.

            The second problem with my hope is that I am not certain that Donald Trump will be as wise as King Friday the 13^th.  I’m not sure that he will change his course, no matter what happens in November.  Yet, even so, if the Republicans lose control of one or both legislative houses, there will be significant roadblocks to what Trump can legally do.  Many of my friends believe that unless those legislative changes are made, we are well on the way to fascism.  I don’t want to believe that, but I must say that the lack of courage of Republicans to stand up to Trump gives me pause. 

            It makes me wish all the harder that we could turn to being neighbors, that we would learn that the approach of King Friday and Donald Trump (who seems to wish that he could be king)  to build walls and separate us makes for disaster rather than peace and security.  As Octavia Butler poses in her powerful book “The Parable of the Sower,” do we want to be neighbors or fascists?  We’ll know soon enough, and the waiting is terrifying.  To paraphrase the quote attributed to John Wesley, let us work as hard as we can, for as long as we can, with as many people as we can to move us towards being neighbors rather than being fascists.