I’ve been talking a lot about how we get along with each other and with the world. My commentary has embraced teamwork, caring for each other, people who are black, white, brown and yellow, and foreign relations, peoples from different countries. Perhaps some of you realized that I was also talking about shared religious obligations. What the Jews call the Tanakh, Christians call the Old Testament. And Muslims also hold the Torah, the first five books of Moses, as sacred. So all our scriptures tell us:
When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him
The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.[1]
The Book of Amos amplifies the relationship of different peoples to the Lord, saying:
Are ye not as the children of the Ethiopians unto Me,
O children of Israel? saith the LORD.
Basically the Bible enjoins us to follow the Golden Rule, an injunction not restricted by race – the Israelites, after all, are as the children of Ethiopians to God.
The Golden Rule is a creed of godliness and decency, of getting along with each other, applicable internationally among different nations, domestically among people of different backgrounds, and locally in our schools, cities and communities. To miss God’s injunction is to invite the rule of thugs, the most violent and vicious of people, intent on domination, not our welfare.
America was founded on principles of mutual respect. To treat that as if it were some historical anachronism is to invite the destruction of everything dear to us – peace, justice, our families, friends and communities, much as it is being destroyed in parts of the world now. Yes, there are times when we have to fight back but we must do everything possible to maintain the primacy of the Golden Rule, the most fundamental rule underlying peace, decency, justice and national survival.
To treat that as optional, to pick fights with each other because of our parentage or with friendly nations with whom we have been at peace is no mark of intelligence or patriotism. It doesn’t make us stronger but saps our strength in needless feuds.
To push out people who have every right to be here and break up their families violates the Biblical injunction to treat our neighbors as ourselves, compounded by the violation of the rule of law and denial of due process. To erase the records of Blacks who risked their lives for America, and the records of Blacks whose place in history was defined by their accomplishments, their championships and achievements, and the stories of Navaho Code Talkers who protected our troops during the Second World War, all as part of the Trump diversity purge doesn’t erase favoritism, but flaunts prejudice. To eliminate the presence and accomplishments of nonwhite Americans and guests by executive fiat and to treat the rule of law as optional invites the rule of force, subjects us all to the whims of petty dictators without restraint, and to the kind of Klan violence that once ruled a large portion of America.
This country deserves to be ruled by Americans who have absorbed the great principles of America.
[1] Leviticus 19:33-34 (Jewish Publication Society, The Torah, 1967).
Steve Gottlieb’s latest book is Unfit for Democracy: The Roberts Court and The Breakdown of American Politics. He is the Jay and Ruth Caplan Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Albany Law School, served on the New York Civil Liberties Union board, on the New York Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, and as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Iran.
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