The Red and Black

Issue date: 11/29/07 Section: Opinions

ZAID JILANI

Don't say it. I know what you're thinking: "A Jilani column. Great. It's going to be a liberal screed against fascist Republicans and spineless Democrats and manage to promote 1,000 unrelated left-wing causes at once." As much as I enjoy writing those types of columns, this one's not like that.

Don't get me wrong - I plan to spend the next two months of my life doing everything humanly possible to elect Dennis Kucinich as U.S. president, working on maybe-becoming-a-vegetarian, and generally ticking off a third of the American electorate.

But this column isn't about just a political idea; it's about how we fundamentally treat each other as human beings.

Here goes nothing: I'm concerned our country has a fundamental lack of love. Once you stop laughing, please read on.

Love - why is it that word never comes up in our national dialogue? What is it that people are afraid of? Why can't we as a people openly live our lives with love as an organizing principle without being laughed at?

There is no concept defining the basis for more literature, more music, more works of art. It is the defining basis for every global religion - whether as "love thy neighbor" (Christianity) or as "the source of inner and external peace" (Buddhism). There is no other concept in the human grammar capacity that has as many synonyms in all languages.

And yet the word has been eradicated from our national character. It's as if our lives have been sanitized of the concept of loving each other - treating others like you would like to be treated, behaving with kindness and simply going through life with a feeling of mutual solidarity and compassion towards other people. No wonder our presidential debates are more about who we should bomb instead of with whom we should make peace.

I'm blessed to travel a lot, and often I go to the Third World. The people there are poor, and often living with corrupt autocratic governments and ruthless militias. They struggle to survive, and yet there's a curious phenomenon I've always noticed: the people there manage to be much happier than anyone I'll meet in the West.

They stand by each other through famine and drought, civil war and devastating tsunami.

They have a kind of natural solidarity, a natural love of each other that they extend unconditionally.

A friend of mine who spent her summer in Uganda said it was as if "they value you just for existing." Maybe this is case where the First World can learn from the Third.

Love can be turned into a verb at any level. It can be holding a door open for someone, or letting someone cut in front of you at a dining hall, or helping a classmate on a tough assignment.

It can be signing up for the Peace Corps or helping organize a labor union. It can be spending more time with a lover or taking a cash-strapped friend out for a good meal on the house.

Whatever level you want to express your love, I encourage you to do so.

If we can just learn to love each other "just for existing," who knows what can happen? It's possible that we can transform this country, transform the entire world on the idea of acting out love - something that's much more revolutionary than any political idea. Poet W.H. Auden said it best: "We must love one another or die."


- Zaid Jilani is a sophomore from Kennesaw majoring in international affairs.

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