The vast majority of Americans are not anti-Semites, nor anti-black, or anti-gay, etc. This may not have been the case when I was born in Chicago 80-plus years ago. At that time the gays hid in the closet, black people were seen and not heard, and we Jews could not get into most country clubs, law firms, and even banking institutions unless we were making a deposit!
But our nation, in these past 80 years, has become basically a very liberal society with overall acceptance of everyone no matter the color of their skin, their sexual preference or religious beliefs.
Sure there are still many out there who hate/fear blacks and Jews … and no doubt have little love for Catholics as well. Society simply does not change overnight, but the writing is on the wall and once the genie is out of the bottle you can’t push it back in.
Women, for example, could not vote 100 years ago. Do you think our society could now take that right away from them? Blacks could not eat in most restaurants when I was growing up in Chicago. Do you think they would stand for being discriminated against in that way again?
The genie is out of the bottle … and anti-Semitism, while it raises its ugly head now and then, is on the way out. Most gentiles today have no problem being friends with their Jewish neighbors or having their children marry Jews. In fact, that is a Jewish problem with over 50 percent of their kids marrying gentiles with the possibility of them assimilating into the Christian world and leaving their Jewish faith behind.
While American society will still have some folks who hate anyone who is not white, straight, Christian, they are few and far between. They are a dying breed … gasping their final breaths as their ship goes down.
That does not mean that we should not be alert to the dangers of bigots with evil intent who still have access to automatic weapons or bombs. We must be vigilant.
However, we must also not lose sight of the big picture.
Life for most people in this nation has never been more liberal, open-minded and compassionate for those who are different from us. We are just not all the way home yet.
— Stuart L. Pinkert
