- James Baldwin (1924-1987) American Novelist, Essayist
The world is an odd place when you think about it. No one is ever going to be satisfied, no one is ever happy with where he is. We want more. We look at someone we don't know and decide we can't trust him - or worse, that we hate him - before we have exchanged a word. Wars are created - they don't just happen; one of us sees something we want or disapprove of, and take it upon our self to make that point known. That is not to say that it is right to
sit back and watch injustice - but in voicing an opinion we tend to forget that no matter how educated we think ourselves to be, the one thing we cannot ever understand is the precise view of any other single person. The man on the other side of that wall had his own childhood, his own education, he bred his own takes on religion, politics, food choices, whether he secretly hates the sound of children playing ball too early in the morning, or the smell of lilacs, or reading a novel. He may love opera, but hate ballet. He may work under cars and have grease permanently embedded in his nails, but dream of sitting for an hour in front of a Monet. We all make assumptions - it is human nature; prejudice is something we all have. The trick is to stop before we say or do something really stupid. It's not politics, it is diplomacy.