Human Relations

This is human relations month. In every village, city and state there are human relation groups whether from the secular or religious communities. When will the world learn that the entire matter of human relation was established by the Lord himself when he said, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. 'All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." - Matthew 22:34-40.

Whether individuals, governments or others in the human family, history proves that mankind has not been very successful with human relations. Scarred battlefields and filled military cemeteries attest to the inability of mankind to live with one another. The first Great Commandment of our Lord is very easy to live by because only an absolute fool does not realize the goodness of God and the fact that we should honor him with our body, soul and mind. The difficulty comes in the second Commandment when it comes to loving our neighbor as ourselves. In looking in a mirror, you are as far behind the mirror in image as you are in reality. When I had eyesight (I am a 100% disabled totally blind service-connected veteran), I was aware of the enjoyment most receive from looking at themselves in a mirror. Like the sound of your own name which one enjoys hearing, most individuals have fallen in love with their own appearance.

Have you ever considered the fact that the billions of individuals that have lived on this Earth, no two have ever looked the same. Like fingerprints and even the iris of the human eye there no duplicates. No two voices have ever been the same (the closest to this are two male cousins of mine of the same age whose fathers were bothers and mothers were sisters, since I depend so much on my sense of hearing, when I was with the two of them I could not tell which one was talking, they sound EXACTLY the same, I have never found this even with identical twins, and as doctor, I have know several identical twins).

I was speaking before a large Christian group one day and made the statement (before computers were plentiful) that I understand; ”there is a computer now that will identify items all over the world”. I said, “I have been to both the Arctic and Antarctic, and at the top and bottom of the world there are 4.5 million square miles of ice and snowflakes, no of two which are the same, in fact, I understand on all the beaches of the world you will not find two grains of sand the same”.

One does not doubt the phenomenon of the computer. But compared to the ability of an almighty God to create things we are still in a very primitive condition. So, when we consider the billions of individuals who have lived on this Earth and the fact they are all so different it gives us a new challenge in our ability to relate to one another.

Anyone with whom we come in contact is our neighbor. Yet, how many of us do not even know the people who live next door or down the street from us. There is a large Presbyterian church two blocks from my house, where I have lived for 50 years. I understand the senior pastor of this church lives on my street, just a few houses from me. To my certain knowledge, he has never spoken to me nor have most of the people that live on my street. Although, if they are observant at all, seeing me getting in and out of taxi cabs or my car being pulled to the front of my house and someone helping me get in the car, if they have any repore with anyone else, they should know I am a blind older resident of their street. Yet, in these 50 years of living here, I am the oldest resident of the community, through hurricanes, storms of every type, holidays, etc., not one time has anyone of these neighbors come to my house. One did write me a letter that “I needed to change the shrubbery in my front yard because it was so old fashioned”.

In this county and state, there are tax supported agencies called “Human Relations Commissions”. As a long time activist, I have written the boards of these commissions several times about ideas to improve neighborhood activity but have never yet received a response. Such activities, as, having law enforcement contact elderly citizens who live alone. I even gave one new car to my local Wilmington First Baptist Church for a committee in a church to use to transport elderly members and citizens in the community for doctors appointments, drug store necessities and such. The car was never used for this mission, an assistant pastor took the car to another town, where I was known, and a dealer there called me because the car title had been put in my name from the dealership where it was bought which bears my family name and wanted to know about the reason for the low mileage new car and that an assistant pastor was trying to sell it. I suppose, this was the neighborly thing for the church pastor to do.

My early life, 1930-1964, was spent in a segregated South, so I know all about separate water fountains, bathrooms, buses, schools, even doctor's reception areas. I was the first doctor in this town not to have a separate “Jim Crow” reception room. I gave my black patients the same which I gave all others and they paid me with the same color money as others. Books have been written on this subject, I will not do so here.

With the influx of many illegal non-citizens from other places over both our Northern and Southern borders we have a new minority challenge we encounter on a daily basis. Having traveled the world (passport stamped in 157 countries) I know that, like the rest of us, there are good and bad, smiles and frowns in all of us. Some of the most marvelous people I have ever known I met in “so called foreign countries”. Once, as a poor student from the poverty of Eastern North Carolina, paying my way through eight years through 2 university systems to obtain my professional standing in the community, I had a talk with an ancient black woman on her front porch which I have used in speeches across the country, regarding this very subject. Her face and physical condition revealed her hard life as a minority in Bladen County, North Carolina. She said, “Son, if I miss out on heaven, I have really missed out”.

The largest minority in this country are the disabled (estimated 38 million). Unless you are in a wheelchair, minus limbs, the VA does not give you much regard as a disabled veteran. It is very much this way with human relations in all area of government and society pertaining to the loss of hearing or eyesight. Helen Keller, in her book in 1904, said “there is no isolation like the isolation of blindness”. There is no insecurity like that of a disabled person regardless of disability. Our blessed Lord had a particular love for the disabled and when one visits a military hospital, nursing home or institution of any type for physical or mental disability we can understand why he taught us to love each other.

In the American experience, next to slavery, the greatest shame of this nation is it’s treatment of disabled veterans and handicapped people. We, who are disabled, realize that in restaurants, clubs, concerts, churches, we make you “normal” people feel uncomfortable. It would be wonderful, if all over the world, we could all be one color, healthy, wealthy and wise. But our blessed Lord trusted us to treat one another with love and respect in spite of our differences. This is human relations.