the Golden Temple of Amritsar 

Today two interesting events coincided. In Canada, we marked the 30th anniversary of the Air India bombings, which are not widely known outside of Canada, but are hugely important here. This date coincided with the decision by the governor of South Carolina to have the Confederate flag removed from the state legislature. 

In Canada, as far as has been shown in court, the Air India bombings happened after a group of Sikh extremists based in Canada put bombs on two flights, one going to India, via Europe, and one going to Thailand, via Japan. The first bomb went off near the Irish coast, killing all 329 aboard, mostly Indo-Canadians going to visit relatives in India. The second partially malfunctioned and killed two baggage handlers in Japan as the package holding the bomb was being transferred between flights.  

None of the people who died in the Air India bombings had any personal connection to the crime that the extremists were angry about. Nor did the men in Japan. That crime had occurred in June of '84 when the Golden Temple in Amritsar was attacked by Indian Army troops. Sikh rebels had made it their last refuge during religiously based conflicts in the spring of 1984. The Indian Army cornered the last members of the movement there. When the soldiers took the temple, many artifacts in and near it were destroyed, including a library of sacred books. Indira Gandhi, the Indian Prime Minister of the time, was assassinated in Sept. of '84 by two members of her Sikh bodyguards. Then came the Air India bombings. 

So things go. Everywhere, it seems. 

Or maybe not. 

The RCMP investigation and the subsequent series of trials in Canada has dragged on for decades and to date has cost over $130 million. But about ten years after the bombing, I remember clearly one of the sons of a woman who was killed off the Irish coast saying that one good thing had come out of the disaster. He had felt a deep change come over the big majority of people in Canada who were not Indo-Canadian. Sometime in those years, people had stop shrugging off the deaths as "just a bunch of turbanned guys mad at one another" and stopped talking about "just a bunch of 'those' people dead". Canadians had come around to seeing the victims as human beings. Heart deep, the tragedy had truly become one for all Canadians. I had been struck by that very realization earlier that day. 

The connection between that event and the decision by the governor in South Carolina is vividly clear to me, but perhaps it could use some explaining. 

America is finally coming to terms with its prejudices. I feel it soul deep. The reason that Governor Nikki Haley can announce that the Confederate flag is coming down at the state capitol is the same as the reason that Walmart and Sears can announce that they will not sell any such flags or any products bearing their likeness anymore: the deep currents of decency and sense have reached critical mass all over the US, even in the South. Millions of white people are finally getting it. "Those people" are human beings. They complain about traffic and get itches in awkward places just like anyone else.  

And it's not as if people who want the Confederate flag taken down are belittling the courage of the millions of Southerners who fought in the Civil War or who supported the Confederate soldiers in that time. They were brave people. They fought with unbelievable courage. 

But they were wrong. Not in the sense that they were evil, but in the sense that they were mistaken. As were the Sikh extremists in more modern times in India and Canada. As have been many soldiers in many wars. And in fairness, as were many German and Japanese soldiers 75 years ago. They did love their homelands and their people. They did make truly noble sacrifices. They were just following a mistaken cause. 

The human race must move toward greater and greater pluralism if it is to survive. Not a uniform population of one kind of faces or a monotone chorus of one kind of voices. A rainbow of skin colors and cheekbone slants and a chorale of voices.

We live in a quantum universe. Trust me, this thought connects. The connection is crucial. 

In a quantum universe, any one of an array of possible futures may come about by any of millions of possible paths. Which will come true is, in part, shaped by the intelligent application of our skills and knowledge to reality here and now. We really do have free will. It isn't a sweet old-fashioned fairy tale told lovingly to children (as some scientists would have us believe). It's real. 

And in a world where so many disasters may be coming toward us, a society that contains a variety of people with a variety of talents increases our odds of finding someone in the population who has an answer for, hopefully, any crisis that arises. Freedom makes diversity; diversity makes us flexible, nimble, and strong.   

I know it's hard to hold that kind of population together. We are built, I believe, at the genetic level to be xenophobic. Scared of people who look different. We got that way after we ran out of meaningful predators hundreds of thousands of years ago. We evolved to become our own predators. We don't eat corpses, but we do, by war, cut what is obsolete, out of the cultural pool. At least, we used to. 

But we have to smarten up. We can't afford wars anymore. Our weapons have gotten too big. 

The answer? How do we choose among the many paths that the members of the human race are preaching about? We use our best wisdom, learned hard and slow by our ancestors. We argue, debate, and discuss. We make our cases and present our evidence and then we listen. Really listen. Then we choose for the healthy balances of wisdom and courage, and freedom and love, the bywords that must inform our choices. 

Most of all, we learn to love one another. It's love that makes us listen and care.  

I am certain that we're getting there. The change is damned slow, but it is happening. The world is a kinder place than it was when I was a kid. Only a bit kinder, but it is a noticeable bit. 

My remaining fear is obvious: with the hazards we are about to face, will we come together in time? 

Go home tonight and hug your kids. Insist one more time that they say "please" and "thank-you". But before you do, take one co-worker aside and thank her quietly for what you know she did well today. We can't ever really know what effect a kind word might have maybe even years down the road.    

   

                                     hugs outside Emanuel AME church, Saturday, June 20, 2015