The commandment is to love one’s neighbours. That’s just in theory (biblical). In practice, there are such things as sociological construct (demographic), political affiliations and financial obligations (bank repossession).
So your neighbours got evicted…in times of pandemic uptick, economic downturn and worst: Kabul falling.
Every twenty years or so. We need to retake the test…of re-certification…to be fellow human beings, to be good neighbours (Frost says to put up the fence, Trump the wall, and Mr Rogers shoes/sweats).
Edward Hall whose text has been required for Cross-Cultural courses mentioned the last few inches…the hardest. People can for a short stint, travel afar – from E1 to E3 – for mission work, military tour or diplomatic stops e.g. Harris in Hanoi (w/ Havana syndromes that delayed), but it’s much harder to repatriate, to feel close to the “millionaires next door” . Ex-pats also found this true, since being away from HQ diminishes their chances of getting rightly promoted.
Back to our Afghanis new neighbours, 50,000 strong as Biden warned. The last few inches, the hardest (please stay socially distant, six feet “haven’t you heard, you morons!). Coming to a neighbourhood watch near you.
You watch them watch you. We are the World!
Children of a lesser God.
People tend to get mixed up between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Man. The former is like an OSI upper layer in an open Universe, where miracles are the norms (sacred) while the latter, a closed one with secular and scientific facts i.e. Cause/Effect, Force/Counter-force. Just the Kingdom of Man alone, we’ve already found ourselves short e.g. Infrastructure crumbling, representatives need to get paid (Government funding to talk about police de-funding)….Then, there is a reckoning (after Jan 6 Capitol charge, not by Red Coats, but Red Hats). In the scope of this blog, I will not get into piety, the Kingdom of God and personal/original Sin. Consult Reinhold Niebuhr ( or his brother) on reforming within the system, vs a revolutionary model of change.
We project unto our neighbours, same way we thought the grass is always greener out there. We need the Jones while the Jones need us. We are both lonely, in need and in want. The Rolling Stones just lost its crucial drummer: irreplaceable and impeccable. He was known as elegant and steady-handed. Rest of the band are mourning and missing their neighbour. He earned his place in the Pantheon of our music idols and icons.
But the Afghan pilots and interpreters, scouts and contractors, corrupt officials and female diplomats? Our new neighbours? Our STEM students of Robotic Technology.. in Oklahoma? How about Standord and MIT? Have they been baptised by sprinkling or immersion? (by fire for sure). And preferably, per Ralph Reed, to join the Moral Majority and attend Liberty U (of course, to attend MAGA rallies and not the Stones concerts). Or worst off, Jim Bakker and his advice to hear God, not through a mask.
40-50 years ago, to be American meant to be WASP, to have been baptised (possessing a Certificate of Bapstimal and of Citizenship), to have put silver coins into those Sunday-morning collection plates and to bring pot-luck dinners (International students living in the dorm were exempted).
Today, millennial and generation Z know nothing about America’s most segregate hour (Sunday Worship hour). Globalization (a trade term) and diversity (an academic/professional construct) re-frame the way we look at our neighbours. The Internet and social media help put the nails on the coffin (of what a neighbourhood once were supposed to be – with church steeple and Tom Hanks playing Forrest Gump “Life is like a box of chocolate” – Hershey, PA).
Ironically, even the missionaries who came back home felt out of place. He/she has traveled the world to win over converts, the stop the tide (of heathenism) and to bring about the Kingdom of God on Earth, yet found alienated and unwanted. The neighours who live next door, the neighbours arrived at our doorsteps (Trick or Treat) and the soon-to-be- our neighbours (currently being “processed” in Ft Lee, Ft Bliss), the neighbours who out of sincere devotion and loyalty to the cause – of making this a better world for our children; are all converging. Six feet apart…Stay away, stay out of sight.
The most segregate hour in America: Sunday morning. The most uncomfortable hour in America: Sunday morning (when the priest “made” you turn around and say “God be with you”). Yes, He has been with me all along. It’s you who have confused between American and Aryan, of being baptised vs bleached, of neighbourly to gentrified folks vs people from all castes and classes. Throw a book at those who keep holding the Good Book, all the while urge others to join the cult of hypocrisy and alienation. The Kingdom of God is here, is near…when you do to the least of these (in Ft Bliss and Ft Lee) you are doing it unto me…Meet your new neighbours.
Thang Nguyen 555 