Ferguson is burning, what can we do about it?

Ferguson is burning, and as an American committed to building a cohesive America, I am deeply saddened to read the comments on facebook this morning. It has unleashed the bigotry in a handful of fellow citizens to say outrageous statements about "them" meaning the African Americans. Racism is not gone, it is subdued. I just pray and hope that we the people realize the severity of this, and don't let this divide us further, as it is not good for us.

Let me quote the Native American wisdom, " All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons of earth," and add, "Whatever he does to the web, he does it to himself." As generous, kind, mature and bigoted Americans, together we have a choice to make it worse by venting our base, mean and unchained animus towards others or hold ourselves and think of the damage we would do to ourselves. We cannot afford to leave in fear and hatred of each other.

Most of the problems we have in our nation can be traced to one thing –and that is not knowing and being judgmental about others. Whether it is Ferguson, Racism, Homophobia, Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, Misogyny or whatever creeps on us, it gains ground because we don’t know each other.

It is time to take initiative such as the Thanksgiving Celebrations and bring people together to "know each other". Knowledge leads to understanding and understanding to appreciation of a different point of view. We have build this nation with lots of sacrifices and we simply cannot afford to let the issues tear us apart, and it will be a loss of all of us.

I hope this gives hope to others, and each one of you can do this, as we did in  Dallas.

Mike Ghouse is president of America Together Foundation, and is committed to building a cohesive America, where no American has to live in apprehension or fear of the other.  He is a speaker on Interfaith matters, pluralism and Islam. His info in 62 links at www.MikeGhouse.net