As we turn the page to a new year, our federal and state legislatures are returning to work. 

Old and new laws are being debated regarding our ongoing culture wars. Frankly, I find it exhausting … and disturbing.

Over the holiday season, it was nice to have a break from it all. I particularly enjoyed the time with family this year, as we comforted each other with my father’s recent passing and celebrated the life we are blessed with. 

I found myself thinking a lot about my “community” – extended family and close friends.

Our community includes Mexicans, Cubans, Peruvians, Chinese, Indians and Thai. We are Caucasian, Black, Hispanic, Indian and Asian. We are Catholic, multiple Protestant faiths, Born Again Christians, Hindu, agnostics, atheists and probably some other faiths I’m not aware of. 

We sometimes experience a variety of ethnic and faith-based prejudices.

We have marriages and divorces, homosexual marriages and step-parents through remarriage. We bear children within marriage and out of wedlock, and we adopt children. We have children with mixed ethnicity.

We attend public and private schools and some of our children are home-schooled. We don’t want any of our children to be harassed for being different. And we want them to have access to all of our history and science in their education.

We confront life challenges and heartaches. We battle alcoholism, drug abuse, mental illnesses, mental abuse, physical abuse and sexual abuse. One member of our community was hospitalized after a beating for being homosexual. 

We nurture children born with handicaps. We nurse and care for our aging parents and grandparents. We struggle against life-stealing illnesses like cancer and Alzheimer’s. 

Some of us are economically comfortable. Others are struggling to make ends meet. Often, we need social services and outside help to manage what life throws at us.

And you know what? It is all beautiful. Our diversity is endlessly fascinating. 

We keep getting better at empathy as we learn more about how each other’s lives are so different. There is no judgment about our differences, just acceptance. And there is love, as we accept our life purpose to support each other.

Recently I heard the old song “What a Wonderful World” sung by Louis Armstrong. It is a celebration of the wonder of God’s creation – the natural beauty of our earth, the love people express to each other, and the endless renewal of human birth and growth.

Bob Thiele and George Weiss wrote the song in the racially turbulent 1960s, hoping it might bring racial harmony. And they chose Armstrong to sing it – a gifted Black musical artist who certainly experienced racial prejudices.

The song and reflections about my family left me thinking about our culture wars. 

While important issues await progress, we have members of our government prioritizing hateful and discriminatory laws targeted at people who are simply and innocently different. They want to exclude from our country people that I call family. 

In the interest of fiscal conservatism, they want to defund the most humane forms of help our government provides the needy. 

What a waste of hot air. Worse, what a threat to what makes us moral and good. 

Why? Because at the root of our culture wars is a desire to judge and an unwillingness to accept people who are different than us.

There are now almost 8 billion people inhabiting Earth. Virtually all want the same thing. They want their families to be safe, sheltered and fed life-sustaining food and water. If they get sick, they want access to the cures modern medicine can provide. They want to experience the joy of life their maker intended for them.

They want to have hope for the future. They want a fighting chance.

Why are we afraid of these people? Why do we judge how they are different from us? Why can’t we extend the minimal effort it would take to understand them and be empathetic to their struggles?

There is a universal message across all faiths. We exist to help each other, not judge each other. All 8 billion are God’s children and God doesn’t make junk. We love each other by supporting each other.

What a wonderful world that would be.