Look to Our Commonalities

I was stimulated by the “Adieu” letter in last week’s Pulse. Without expounding too much, I was very impressed with the following section: “Similarly, we remain steadfast in our beliefs that God is love, that grace is freely given not earned…that we must work for the greater good and for social justice by caring as much for others as we do for ourselves…”

One of the great commandments is “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” And another precept is, “If you have done it to the least of these, my brethren, you have done it unto me.”

In this letter, it seems that the small group known as Door County People of Faith have hit the nail on the head as to what our task is.

It is quite plain and if people could keep in mind the Golden Rule, as it were, so many of our more trivial problems and even major ones would simply not be nearly as bad as we make them to be. Major faiths such as Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, and others all preach these values and ways of living in one way or another. Yet, we become involved in minutia and silly disagreements. We need to have the courage and will to get past all of these perceived disagreements and look at where we all agree. Work on that, especially these basic precepts listed above. We will all feel better as a result and so many problems, both large and small, will be diminished so much.

Buzz Althoen
Milwaukee, Wis.
July 30th, 2015