“If it was us, if it was our lonesome ass shuffling past the corner of Monroe and Fayette every day, we’d get out, wouldn’t we? We’d endure. Succeed. Thrive. No matter what, no matter how, we’d find the f—— exit…
That’s the myth of it, the required lie that allows us to render our judgments. Parasites, criminals, dope peddlers, whores—when we can ride past them at Fayette and Monroe, car doors locked, our field of vision cautiously restricted to the road ahead, then the long journey into darkness is underway. Pale-skinned hillbillies and hard-faced yos, toothless white trash and gold-front gangsters—when we can glide on and feel only fear, we’re well on the way. And if, after time, we can glimpse the spectacle of the corner and manage nothing beyond loathing and contempt, then we’ve arrived at last at that naked place where a man finally sees the sense in stretching razor wire and building barracks and directing cattle cars into the compound.”
From The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-city Neighborhood, by David Simon and Edward Burns
Ain’t it the truth. Great quote.
There are things I don’t want to see. They will reach out and draw me in if I look long enough. They will have a claim on me. After all, I have a career.
Don,
I love your comment–that if we dare look we will risk entering into a relationship. Jesus has much to say about being given eyes to see. And so much of his kingdom comes to us in a strange and rugged disguise (as Mother Theresa would call it). I wonder how much of his kingdom we actually miss while we busy ourselves with “his work”.
Not sure loathing and contempt are the primary issue. They come after the fear.
And they are often the coping mechanism we choose to deal with the fear. I will do a great many things to avoid feeling and admitting my fears.