Moral Panic

In his blog, "Slacktivist", Fred Clark wrote about the phenomena of moral panics in society. He cited the Salem Witch Trials as an example, a case where the "morality" or the fear that evil was threatening society was so strong a panic ensued and 14 women, 5 men and 2 dogs were put to death.

Mr. Clark feels a better phrase would be moral hysteria. Panic is an involuntary response while hysteria grows when certain choices are made. Those choices include accepting assertions as solid evidence without allowing oneself to look at any evidence to the contrary, the decision to embrace and perpetuate at least the emotional drama and most likely the verbal/written drama.

Regardless of which term we use, moral panic or moral hysteria, as we become a nation, really a world, with more and more access to information, to research-backed data, to facts, we have become no less susceptible to this. The fear is perpetuated by politicians, religious leaders, the NRA, some of the more sensational media sources, and any group that aims to marginalize others.

Currently, the victims of the this type of thinking are Syrian refugees, Muslims, illegal immigrants and even sex abusers. We've taken a little bit of fear and let it overwhelm our responsibility to look at the facts, blinded ourselves to evidence from all sides of each issue and let our desire to protect our loved ones see enemies in the unknown. We're encouraged to do this by well meaning people and by people who have a warped sense of right and wrong. Whatever the reason it lessens us individually and as a society.

Mr. Clark is a much clearer thinker and better writer and his blog can be found on the Patheos.com site under Slacktivist.

the DREAM Act

Lately I've been thinking a lot about immigrants--mainly people who come from Mexico. I just finished a book, "Just Like Us" by Helen Thorpe. The author followed four Mexican teenage girls through their senior year of high school and then through four years of college. Two of the girls were in the US legally and two were not, though they had been here for most of their lives.

The book was excellent in identifying how complicated an issue this is. In the girl's families, it wasn't unusual for some of their siblings to be American citizens; for a parent to be deported--leaving the children here in turmoil; to graduate at the top of your class yet not be eligible for any scholarship or financial aid; not be able to fly on any commercial airline or rent a car or rent a movie or get a fishing license or anything else that requires a state issued ID--the list goes on and on.

What really struck me is that these girls excelled in school, they were accepted for admission to University of Denver (not an easy school to get into) and the three that went there graduated in four years (the fourth girl went to a different university)--but the two that are here illegally now have very few options.

These girls were both brought here illegally by one or both of their parents as small children and have been here since. But as the law stands now there is no way for them to become citizens. Congress is considering a bill that addresses this--it is called the DREAM Act. It provides a path for citizenship for aliens that were brought here as minors, have been here for five or more continuous years, have graduated from high school (or GED), have good moral character and have completed at least two years in higher education or armed forces.

DREAM stands for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act. I don't know how to address all the issues of immigration--but I do think this is a step in the right direction.