American Horror Story: Fear of The Other

We’re all familiar with one of the august obsessions of our time: binge-watching a television series. My first binge several years ago was Battlestar Galactica, and my experience was exactly like the Portlandia sketch of bingeing that particular show. I could not stop watching it. If you’ve never seen it, it’s not just a series about sci-fi and dystopia; it’s also about The Fear of The Other and what it’s like to not realize the evil standing right next to you until — in some cases—it’s too late.

My latest binge is American Horror Story. I had worked my way through all the seasons up to Roanoke as of yesterday. Then I turned on the news (which I have less stomach for now than I ever did) and saw a real-life American Horror Story taking place in Pittsburgh: what the Anti-Defamation League called the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the history of the United States.

Eleven people were murdered in cold blood, in a place — a sanctuary—where they gathered to worship God. All of the victims were over the age of fifty; there were three who were in their 80’s and 90’s, which means they had lived through the Holocaust. One of them was actually a Holocaust survivor. There’s a post-Holocaust slogan I learned as a child and repeated countless times: Never Again.

Our elders warned us this would happen, if we weren’t vigilant. And it has. This is not a warning bell, that bell already rang out loud and clear on January 21, 2017. We need to reach out to our neighbors, friends, and family member with kindness and with concern. We need to embrace our children and our parents. We need to embrace our God, whomever and whatever we believe God to be.

This is not a drill. This is real life, and this is really happening.

And we need to vote on November 6. This is the only route we have to stem this growing red tide of hate and divisiveness. There are those who would do us harm and they have weapons and they are mowing us down in our homes, schools, stores, streets, and places of worship.

We are in mortal danger merely by being ourselves: Black. Gay. Female. Jewish. Muslim. Democrat. Journalist.

This has to stop, and we are the only ones who can stop it.