The Bully Pulpit, part 2

Anyone who knows me well, knows I love folk music. It was sometime around 2004, when I first heard a new recording by Peter, Paul and Mary of a song entitled, Don’t Laugh At Me. The first time I heard it, I was sitting quietly in my living room and listening to PP&M’s then new album. Don’t Laugh at Me came on and I found myself almost immediately reduced to tears. I must have hit replay a good ten times in a row. I searched for the composer online, wrote to him, and soon had the lyrics and guitar chords as I hastened to learn the song.

I believed it would be a powerful song to bring to camp. I love those delicious evenings when I am invited to come to a bunk at bedtime to sing some songs as “cabin prayers.” I also brought the song to attention of my wife, Laura, who at the time directed the camp’s educational program. The following summer, she arranged for Peter Yarrow to visit camp, to teach the song and talk about Don’t Laugh at Me.By then, and entire anti-bullying campaign, Operation Respect, had taken root, in part, inspired by the song. Don’t Laugh at Me has been translated into numerous languages and the curriculum and campaign have taken root around the world. When I first heard the Israeli-Palestinian version, I was again reduced to tears.

The song has been very much on my mind in recent months, as I follow our national political discourse. Over and over again, I find myself wondering how much impact projects like Operation Respect or The Bully Project can have so long as leaders on our national, state or local levels display the very behaviors we, our schools, and our faith communities are trying to teach our children.

I have been quite impressed with how the anti-bullying message has been integrated into the very fabric of our URJ Camps over the past decade or so. Our schools are working hard to create communities where healthy self-esteem and skills for constructive disagreement are learned and lived. Wouldn’t it be refreshing if our political discourse could lead, rather than undermine these efforts?

How can we help our candidates and leaders understand that what they say leaves an imprint on the hearts and minds not only of prospective voters, but also on the hearts and minds of millions of young children who we are raising as the coming generations who will guide our nation? You want to ascend to President Teddy Roosevelt’s “Bully Pulpit?” The path is not through being a bully, bigot, or divider.

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As we traverse the space between our two national parties’ nominating conventions I urge us all to take a few minutes to listen to Don’t Laugh at Me and reflect on its message. I fully understand that politics can be messy and chaotic. I cannot accept bullying, denigration, bigotry, hatred, religious intolerance, anti-Semitism, racism, and any of the other forms of divisive language pouring forth as a path to living our nation’s ideals. All of us, created b’tzelem Elohim, in the”image of God” are precious beings. We will be great when we embody that as we work together to heal our fractured society and our broken world.