THOMASVILLE — I have been watching this current mess unfold in the Times-Enterprise, and I must say that the prevailing air of intolerance in Thomasville, as evidenced by a couple of ignorant fellow townies sending some angry-sounding letters to the editor, is really quite depressing.

 For the record, I’m 25, was raised in Thomasville and I am a minority. Reading some of the hateful garbage that gets printed in this paper makes me wonder if I’m even welcome in my own hometown. Y’all say you’re Christians, so where in the world does this “us vs. them” paradigm come from?

I’m not religious in any sense of the word, but even I know that Jesus told his followers to love each other as special, feeling, worthy human beings. Show me where in the Bible he put any sort of qualification on, “Love ye one another.”

 So, you’ve spoken to a Muslim person once. So, you saw one on TV that one time doing something distasteful. Surely all Muslims are exactly the same, right? They’re all terrorists and evil, right?

Well, I could draw the same conclusions from Christian terrorists like the KKK (who murdered and maimed untold numbers of people), that guy who bombed Centennial Park and the people who hurl stuff at doctors and patients at abortion clinics.

Those are only a few examples. I’m not even going to get into the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition or the slave trade.

My point is that people belonging to a group, whether it’s an ethnic group, religion, or even a vague geographic area, the people in that group do not make up a monolith. We do not all think the same. We do not all act the same. We do not possess a hive mind, and I would appreciate it if some of you would take the time to evaluate a person based on his or her merits rather than what you see (or think you see) on the outside. Gross generalizations aren’t helping anybody.

 And I’ve noticed that the only people who have a problem with being “politically correct” are usually people who have no idea how privileged they are in American society. No one is saying you can’t believe what you want to believe. All we’re asking is that you don’t be a jerk about it and that you try to at least consider another person’s feelings.

But when I look around town and see just how many businesses have the word “plantation” in them, I start to wonder if that’s asking too much.

 Thomasville, we need to do better.

 

Monica M. Marria

Thomasville