Those Who Fight Monsters

Tuesday my grandmother and I went to cause a ruckus at our senator's office down in Austin. We made a day of it, but the most important stop was to John Cornyn's offices. We talked to a very polite republican about Health Care, and she heard us out, took our names and some notes, smiled and sent us on our way. In the elevator we met a few others who were there for the same reason: liberals there to cause a pro-healthcare reform scene. I joked the other day on twitter about "harassing my senator." Really, we were polite and calm while explaining why we thought the republicans were all idiots. Really though, we were well behaved. I get the feeling that a lot of the people there on our side were not polite, though. And that got me thinking.

I worry sometimes that people who work for the rights of one group so alienate the people outside of that group that they become as discriminatory as the people they supposedly work against.

We have to keep in mind the fact that not everyone who is on the other side is a monster. My heart hurts when I see people whom I respect on one side of an issue become as oppressive and discriminatory as those they oppose. Protecting the rights of a minority is of huge importance to me, and I think it is a proper priority for our country and our lives. Whether you're protecting a race, a gender, an orientation or a lifestyle I think you're doing good work. But as Nietzsche once said, "Those who fight monsters should take care that they never become one."

We're becoming monsters. We're characterizing the other side as mindless freaks or slaves to conformity- we're accusing them of the same horrors they have persecuted us for. Maybe they deserve it. Maybe the extremists on the other side are just as bad as they think we are. But when we monsterize them, when we dehumanize them to make them seem like a big bad ultimate evil what do we lose? The moderates.

I'm a moderate. I'm a normal who loves freaks, but I'm a little freaky and I love normals. I see so many beautiful things on both sides but I also see lot of hate. But as time goes on and the good work continues, I'm starting to see more hate on the side I support. I don't know how to tell them that they sound less revolutionary and more hateful. We criticize those lunatics in town hall meetings raving against health care reform- I don't know how to say that when you yell for it I can barely tell the difference.

We must be certain that our voices sing the praise of the better world, and our fingers point the way, and not the blame.