What does it take to get our attention?

Those of us who still have common sense must be wondering this as we watch tragedy after tragedy unfold, experience or see natural disasters unleash their fury and hear the spewing of venomous statement after venomous statement from the right, the left and the middle, with hate and bigotry at its core.

Could it be that our politics has done this to us, turned our country into a hate-mongering society, where harming first and asking questions later is quickly becoming the horrifying norm? Are we merely accepting that this is the way life in America must be now? Don’t we have a responsibility to bring about change?

We think the answer is yes.

While we still contend that there are far more good people than evil ones in our midst,with anger rising and hope diminishing, how long will it be before we can no long, with assurance, make that statement?

From pipe bombs being sent to former presidents to the tragic shooting deaths of 11 people inside a synagogue in what is being referred to as the deadliest rampage against the Jewish community in US history, evil has been unleashed yet again.

And that begs our question: what does it take to get our attention? Extended further, perhaps the question should be: when will we learn to get along, to exist in a world with people, different perhaps than we are, but still our neighbors?

We have allowed hate-spewing politicians, ratings-hungry 24-7 news channels and our own innate prejudices to kidnap our humanity and blind us to the fact that we are all very flawed individuals who need one another.

While not everyone who reads these editorials are of the Christian faith, it is that faith that we rely upon as we make an urgent plea to people of all religions, all races, all socio-economic classes, all political persuasions and all sexual persuasions to learn to get along once again, to exist side by side in peace, pulling for one another to be successful in a land that has always stood apart because of its freedoms and because of the hope it offered to all.

In God’s holy word, the Bible, in Jeremiah 22:17, the prophet warned against building palaces while bullying people. “But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for they coveteousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.”

God calls us to love our neighbor. It is, along with loving the Lord thy God with all thine heart, the greatest commandment.

And our neighbor isn’t just those who are easy to love, easy to agree with, easy to care for. Our neighbor is the downtrodden; the lost; the Christian and the Muslim; the rich and the poor; the Democrat and the Republican; the thief and the righteous. And the list just goes on and on. It is not up to us to judge them; it is our call to love them.

Our neighbor is every man, woman and child. And our duty is to treat them all fairly (as we would want to be treated), to offer them hope and to love them as we do ourselves.

Whether you are Christian or of some other faith, the tenet of loving your neighbor remains the source of hope we can offer to someone else. It is the thing that can and will change the world.

Jeff Blattner, a member of the University of Colorado Law School, said in a Washington Post column after the Pittsburgh massacre, “I fear we’ve gotten away from seeing all Americans as “us” — from seeing all Americans’ problems as worthy of our attention…”

We would take it a step further to say we have gotten away from seeing each other as neighbors both in America and abroad and we’ve let others play to our fears and incite a divisive, hate-filled spirit within us.

It is not too late to change; to end the cycle of hatred and work to inspire a hope that brings with it new promise for even the least among us.

But we have to heed the warnings, stop spewing hate and stop supporting those who do and return to a people who work for justice, stand for fairness and show mercy to our neighbors.

Our attention is needed. Won’t you give it today?