In dealing with inter-personal relationships in the world, we need to see people as people in order to value them. When leaders such as Nancy Pelosi or Barney Frank and others speaks of “dissenters, astro-turf, ring-wing extremists, Swastika-carrying tea-baggers” and such, it is an attempt to distance themselves from the other's humanity. They does not see the faces of Americans who love their country and do not want to see it destroyed, they sees an impersonal group, a faceless mass of opponents to their agenda.

As such, they feel no connection with them as people and it is far easier to find distaste and mistrust for a faceless group of protesters than it is real Americans with real faces, real stories, sincere beliefs and ideals.

Until our leaders see the people whom them wish to marginalize and discredit as real people with valid points of view, they will never be able to connect with them or even to care about what they think or want.

During our country’s history of war participation, one constant seems to run through them all, the labels we give our enemies. In WWII we fought the “Nips”, “Jerries” “Krauts”, “Japs” and the “Whops”. In Vietnam it was “Charley”, “Gooks”, “tunnel rats” and “Coolies”. In the Middle-East we fight the “Rag-heads”, “Camel-jockeys”, “insurgents”, or faceless “terrorists”. All these labels serve one purpose, to distance us from their humanity. In wartime that may even be necessary for us to rationalize the killing of another human being.

It is easier to conduct a campaign of warfare against a faceless enemy once we can imagine them as being anything other than human beings with dreams, hopes, families, beliefs, albeit different than ours. That distance is necessary for us to have in order to combat them effectively without allowing it to get too deeply into our hearts as fellow human beings.

So in Washington, as in the rest of the world, we need to find a way to reconnect with those different than us as human beings, and as valid occupants on this planet, and in this country.

In these days it is so easy to find oneself called a jingoist or a racist as a way to be dismissed from making any valid contribution to the issue being discussed. Make a statement against the influx of illegal immigrants into America and see what I mean.

Being called a “flat-earther” is a means by which one opposed to the eroding Al Gore concept of Climate Change is silenced. Being called a “Birther” is a way to silence those who question President Obama’s eligibility to serve as president rather than address it.

If you recognize the threat that Islam militants pose this country you are labeled as Islamophobic. If you don’t think gay marriage should be allowed, you are instantly labeled as homophobic. “Right-wing talk radio” is a way to show disdain for the views broadcast there. The list is almost endless but the desired effect is the same, to negate any contribution one may have to an issue.

That doesn’t mean that we to allow tolerance to overrule common sense or the need to recognize true dangers. We need to remember however that were it not for our personal upbringing and cultural differences between where we were born and where “they” began their life, we could very well be just like “them”, especially from a global perspective. That realization is important in understanding and dealing with differences, little or great, between people from all walks of life and all belief systems.

So every time you hear someone use labels to differentiate between themselves and someone else, recognize that they are seeking to distance themselves from that person for one reason or another. In some cases that might be desirable to call someone for what they are as a matter of survival, for example not being afraid to call a convicted rapist or child molester what they have proven themselves to be. It is in that context that we can exercise due caution and protect our families and ourselves. But in other instances it may be merely a means not to have to deal with them. And these are the instances I am referring to here.

There are many issues that need to be addressed in this country today which will not ever be totally and honestly dealt with because of the labels tacked onto those with opposing views. Political Correctness is a insidious disease in this country and it destroys all legitimate debate about a great many issues. Valid and pertinent facts are ignored due to Political Correctness. And such willful blindness is detrimental in our solving these problems and even to our continued development as human beings. It leaves us in the darkness and leads us away from the truth.

The extreme differences between some individuals may make it necessary to mark those differences. There will always be conservatives and liberals, morality and immorality and right and wrong and no erasing of those titles will ever bring us all together on the same page. Yet it is still important to understand that unless we see each other as human beings and not merely nameless “others” we will never cross the divide that separates us and that is a struggle we must never cease to engage in. Bridging those differences is a terrific challenge, one that I find myself often right in the middle of, but a necessary one nevertheless.

As long as there is a “us” and “them” we need to continue to build the bridges upon we can meet, share idea and maybe even find the similarities while working on the differences. After all, it is what civilized human beings do.