Who the Monsters Are
By: Brown Lotus
Tags: Gut Health, Compassion, Covid, Introspection, Racism

Is it fathomable that humans could be monsters? I can only shrug my shoulders wearily anymore, but aside from President-Elect Joe Biden’s incredible victory, what I continue to see in the news and on social media is heart-breaking.

Hospitals around the United States have reached full capacity when it comes to admitting patients with COVID. Some are so full that patients have lingered in waiting rooms for more than a day. Still others may be forced to wait in their vehicles because every inch of clinical space has been occupied. Health care workers toil faithfully to make sure solutions are found, but for the majority of sufferers there are road-blocks in every avenue.

President Donald Trump exudes the toxicity level of about ten Chernobyls (and that’s on the conservative end of the estimate), and in spite of that, tens of millions of eager voters cast their ballots in his favor.

It doesn’t seem to matter to Trump and his followers that hate crimes against vulnerable POC and the LGBTQ+ community have surged during Trump’s four years of authoritarianism. People these days can discuss their racism over coffee at Starbucks as easily as they talk about the weather. After all, if their popularly-elected leader doesn’t bother checking his speech, why should they? And what should it matter, with the United States being a free country with ‘free speech’?

For the first time in America’s history since the first Civil Rights movement, closeted racists feel comfortable enough to utter horrific slurs in front of friends, neighbors, colleagues and their own family members.

For them, it’s ‘America First’, and they figure it’s high time to re-claim their status as superiors in the world. They want their oppressed fellow BIPOC citizens to know that nothing ever really changed. Even those whose beliefs border on the fringe of reality no longer need to fear ostracism if word of their views accidentally leaks.

It’s the first time in ages that the poisons of anger, jealousy and ignorance are embraced as acceptable traits. Instead of reacting with alarm, those who’ve been affected are using this not-quite-civil-war as an opportunity to wield their festering symptoms as badges of honor.

Under the guise of restoring America’s ‘good-old-days’ and steam-rolling anything that gets in its way, our citizenry is engaging in shocking displays of sadism and abuse — which, in turn, serve as examples of the intolerant behavior that today’s children may emulate.

The police officers meant to protect and serve have instead murdered BIPOC on a scale so alarming that it is inseparable from any human rights abuse.

Under the cultish sway of Trump’s toxic rhetoric, America has also waged a xenophobic battle to complete a wall across the U.S.-Mexican border that would bar not monsters from entering, but people just like us. People who make love, eat, sleep, and desire to shield their children from countries where police are corrupt and people die torturous deaths at the hands of soulless drug cartels.

We’re fighting to keep out not spiders, not foreign-looking gut flora, not fat and ugly Demodex mites, but people…like you and me.

Humans think based on superficialities. We see religion. Weird food. Skin colors. Different clothes. Accents. Languages. Humans act as though the people whom we call ‘other’ are the real monsters, but ponder that for a moment.

Are the women and children who were separated in substandard holding facilities not enough to teach us that we need to develop compassion? About 600 children have families who cannot be found because of horrific familial disruptions that seem to have been given the Trump stamp of approval. These facilities have traumatized vulnerable youth and ripped still-breastfeeding babies away from their mothers.

This is to speak nothing of COVID-19. The disaster of Corona has rendered America’s peculiar healthcare structure into tatters. ICUs are full to bursting, and because of the current administration’s humiliating response (or lack thereof), at the time of this writing nearly a quarter of a million Americans have died. That’s 250,000 people, failed by a government supposedly built to protect them. Instead of trying to educate the public on the importance of wearing a mask to avoid spreading this infection, people in powerful positions chose to smear the act of wearing a mask into political one, not one of safety and common sense.

It’s no wonder why we aren’t looking within or asking the right kinds of questions.

When a fool commits evil deeds, he does not realize that he is tormented by his own deeds, like one burnt by fire. ~Buddha’s Teachings from the Dhammapada (vs 136)

The ‘monsters’ inside of us are indispensable. We have intricate connections with them that keep us alive and healthy, but we also have connections to those whom our soon-to-be former President would have us ostracize.

Understandably, humans cannot see the full picture, but we are collectively intelligent enough to know that a full picture does exist. We are smart enough to realize that all human beings come from the same family. By harming even one individual, we are harming ourselves.

(Photo courtesy of Brett Sayles from Pexels)

We rely on immigrants, though current propaganda would have us never believe it. If the young girl who risked her life to cross the border into America is deported, she will never have a chance to become a physician and be the first one on night shift who realizes that a child infected with COVID is beginning to deteriorate.

The young people we shackle as soon as they scale the wall will be deported before they can become the carpenters who build your daughter’s dream house, or the caterer who serves your niece’s wedding, or the woman who saves your child through the kidney she would have otherwise been able to donate.

But do we really stop to think about it? Do we?

(Photo courtesy of Anna Shvets from Pexels)

The real infection in the heart of our country right now is the ignorance that labels unfamiliar people as ‘other’; the anger that wishes them to go away and stop leaching/migrating/existing; and the jealousy we feel when the government grants them a paltry benefit that we think really ought to belong to us.

And this isn’t a run-of-the-mill infection, either. These three poisons supercede even COVID-19.

As hopeless as this all seems, we can still rejoice that there is some good news. While the world waits anxiously for a Coronavirus vaccine, there are free antidotes now that can effectively eliminate the three poisons, or at the very least lessen their severity. These are compassion, patience, and tolerance.

(Photo courtesy of Raj Rama from Unsplash)

If I may, allow me to demonstrate how these antidotes could be applied in a real-life situation.

I’m at the DMV, and the counter is a Latina woman with two little girls clutching her slacks. I’m already impatient because her ticket number was 42, and mine is 60. She’s also taking forever because she doesn’t speak English well, and she needs to sign a bevy of complicated paperwork. Normally I’d be irritated, which would give way to anger. But instead of giving in to those feelings, I look at her little girls and see them for what they are: innocent, wide-eyed children no different from the four I have at home. What wellls from the depths of my heart is compassion, so I walk to the counter and assist the visibly relieved woman with her paperwork. After my business with the DMV, I head to the grocery store to pick up some ice cream on the way home. I’m in line and watch as a harried-looking father juggles a whimpering toddler and uses an EBT card to pay for baby formula. This time, I’m jealous. How fair is it that the government gives him benefits while I struggle to make a penny stretch because I earn too much to qualify for government assistance? After a couple of deep breaths, though, I realize how petty I’m being and resolve to foster patience. I also realize that baby formula is expensive, and I saw him put one can of Enfamil back. Happy to do a good deed, I tell the cashier that I will cover the cost of the baby’s extra formula. The look of thanks on the father’s countenance is as pleasant as the glow of lilacs in spring. On my way out of the store, I realize I’ve forgotten something (the coriander?) and circle back to get it. This time, my cashier is a Muslim woman, with a brightly-colored hijab and gloves on both hands. Isn’t covering the hands a bit too extreme? I wonder in my ignorance. After all, this isn’t Pakistan or Saudi Arabia. Dropping a few oppressive habits once you’ve reached the States is as American as apple pie. What’s this girl’s problem? “I have really bad eczema,” she says apologetically, having seen my pointed look at her hand-wear. “It really gets bad when I handle things like money, which is dirty. The gloves save me from welts, bumps and break-outs.” I’m speechless. As sure as I was of her anti-American sentiments, I was knocked flat on my behind by her reality, which was completely different than what I had imagined. All that is left is tolerance, which I am no longer afraid of. The cashier and I exchange genuine pleasantries, and I am able to go home without any heaviness in my heart.

(Photo courtesy of Zeyn Ofuang from Unsplash)

At the end of the day, I don’t exist as merely the outer appearance of the form that is my ‘body’. I am not just the skin, the eyes, the clothes, this hijab.

I am the mites who clean my face; the bacterial cells that line my stomach; the trillions of cells that are necessary to keep this body running, even though I cannot see them and give no second thought to their existence.

I am the country that welcomes the poor, the governor that enforces law, the woman who lovingly tends to her children, and the cow that donates her milk out of her beautiful generosity.

I am a neighbor, a shopper, a customer, and a patient. Does this not illustrate the crucial interdependence that all cultures and communities depend on?

The miracle that is the human body are the billions of tiny beings that facilitate our ability to eat, breathe, and smile.

Similarly, America is formed from the bodies of those who live within her: the brown people, indigenous people, Asian people, African people, Middle Eastern people, Caucasian people — and the hundreds of thousands of multiracial people, like me.

America includes all of us: our complexions, our cultural dress, the myriads of wonderful cooking and the thousands of different languages that pepper small towns in the country-side.

(Photo courtesy of Edward Cisneros from Unsplash)

America is hope.

America is beautiful.

America is all of us.

America is touted as the land of the free and the home of the brave.

We cannot be brave if we are too cowardly to look inside.