Nov 16, 2006 3:42 PM
WHEREAS recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
WHEREAS disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,
WHEREAS it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law. — Preamble (excerpts) to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations, Dec. 10, 1948.
By PHYLLIS C. MURRAY
Intolerance. What is it? We know the dictionary defines it as an unwillingness to endure or to grant equal freedom of expression or to share social, political or professional rights. And we also know that intolerance stems from prejudice and often leads to violence — even, in its severest form, to genocide. Look at the “ethnic cleansing” that has taken place so often around the world in recent years. The Holocaust is, perhaps, the most infamous example of intolerance in Western culture. Intolerance of different cultures made colonialism and slavery possible in the New World. And we can still see how discrimination continues as the remnants of an old slavery system in America dies hard.
Knowing this, why does intolerance continue to flourish, even in the supposedly more “civilized” countries of the world? Why has it grown in leaps and bounds as hate crimes proliferate in this country in urban, suburban, even in rural communities? Surely, we have seen how discrimination, harassment and bullying leads to violence on school campuses throughout the nation. Columbine is a classic example of that.
We have also seen how freedom of speech has been twisted to provide a license for people to wage a war of hate throughout the media and Internet, as ethnic jokes, black-face parodies and ill-humor based on another’s race, religious affiliation, sexual orientation become salable. And even though these vignettes are morally wrong, they provide hours of comic relief to a very wide audience, while graffiti strewn on large surfaces become billboards of hate. Desecration of religious symbols in public places is just another indication that all is not well in morbidly tense communities.
As we look at the growth of intolerance around us, which is mimicked by some children in hate-speech, it becomes obvious that something is missing in our schools. Our schools ought to be infusing students with moral qualities in order to prepare them for full participation in a democratic society, in addition to educating them in academic subjects.
If this is not being done, then doing nothing is doing something harmful that promotes intolerance.
“Morality cannot be legislated,” Dr. Martin Luther King told educators at the UFT Spring Conference in 1964, “but behavior can be regulated. It may be true that the law cannot change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless. It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can restrain him from lynching me — and I think that is important also. And so, while education may not be able to change the hearts of men, it can change the habits of men. And when the habits are changed, pretty soon the attitudes will change. The hearts will be changed and men will be able to come together as brothers, recognizing the naturalness and the rightness of their togetherness.”
With this truth in mind, we should revisit an April 20, 1994 mandate from the New York State Legislature:
“In order to promote a spirit of patriotic and civic service and obligation and to foster in the children of the state moral and intellectual qualities which are essential in preparing to meet the obligations of citizenship in peace or in war, the Regents of the University of the State of New York shall prescribe a course of instruction in patriotism, citizenship and human rights issues, with particular attention to the study of the inhumanity of genocide, slavery and the Holocaust, to be maintained and followed in all the schools of the state.”
Is such a course being taught in your school today?
Certainly, implementing this mandate in schools would be a big step toward ending the growth of intolerance in our society.
Phyllis C. Murray is a literacy teacher at PS 75 in the Bronx, where she has been the chapter leader for five years and the delegate for 20. She is a Gilder Lehrman Fellow, a member of the Scarsdale Human Relations Advisory Board and has been doing research on the early African Presence in Scarsdale, N.Y.