Splaine: Let's abandon hate as we move onto 2024
From my pup days, Jan. 1 has always meant something very special, and that's thanks to my mom. I had asthma as I was growing up. Asthma in those days wasn't generally well-known, and local doctors hadn't had much experience with it so my parents brought me to the Lahey Clinic in Boston when I was 9 years old.
That first trip was shortly after Christmas, and Dr. Fromer − I remember him well because my visits would continue throughout my teenage years — was authoritatively cutting-edge when it came to allergies and breathing difficulties. He set me up with a schedule of shots and new medications.
Upon leaving that appointment, he told my mom his special advice for all his patients, that upon awakening every morning, put your head out the door or window, and breathe deeply 10 times. No matter how cold, 10 times. In the rain or snow, 10 times. Ten times, not nine. Deeply, smiling is optional. "The Twilight Zone," the famous anthology television series, often had a moral lesson packed into it, neatly illustrating the unique story-telling skills of writer Rod Sterling. Example: episode 146, "I Am The Night − Color Me Black," first run on March 27, 1964, not long after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
The plot: A hated man is to be hanged at first daylight, but daylight doesn't come. As the hands on the sheriff's office clock move through the morning, the town remains in darkness. Sterling had pensive narrations ending his shows that captured the essence of the plot. On this one he offered words timeless in their simplicity: "A sickness known as hate. Not a virus, not a microbe, not a germ — but a sickness nonetheless, highly contagious, deadly in its effects. Don't look for it in the Twilight Zone — look for it in a mirror. Look for it before the light goes out altogether." Excerpts appear on YouTube.
That episode aired at a time of great American and worldwide upheaval and uncertainity, with a war in Asia threatening to explode into World War III, body bags of soldiers returning home, and expanding racism and riots. Yes, we've been there before. History tells us about the years that followed in the 1960s and '70s.
C-SPAN last week had an insightful interview with National Public Radio host Steve Inskeep, author of "Differ We Must: How Lincoln Succeeded in a Divided America." A solid historian and commentator, his 2023 book comes from a phrase that President Abraham Lincoln wrote in a letter to a friend with whom he was having a friendly disagreement, "If for this you and I must differ, differ we must." The interview is time well-spent to watch, and can be seen by visiting C-SPAN.org and searching the author or the book, but the title tells the message: "Unity" in our nation — or in Portsmouth — doesn't come from agreement on all matters. It comes from accepting our differences, and listening to and respecting one another despite those differences.
I started Dr. Fromer's Cure, as my mother called it, that New Year's Day very long ago. I've noticed something amazing through all these years — that the 10 breaths I take, especially on every first day of January, have a special crisp freshness all their own.
All 10 of them.
Let's leave 2023 behind and go into 2024 with fresh air inside us and a new mindset. Trying Dr. Fromer's Cure costs nothing. No prescription needed. Not even a charge card.
Today's thought: Along with enjoying those 10 deep breaths as this new year begins, why don't we just abandon that "hate" word? Many of us don't like the New York Yankees, but do we have to let our kids hear that we hate them? Words do matter. While many of us might feel that putting anchovies on our Bratskellar pizza is borderline criminal, can't we use a better four-letter word to say so?
Today's quote: "If we don't do a good job of controlling it, I think hate leads to violence and what we're seeing going on in this country now is really scary to me. And it's something we want to work very hard to prevent." — Patriots owner Robert Kraft, referring to the importance of his Foundation to Combat Antisemitism.
Next time: Protecting our democracy: An appeal to presidential candidates.
Variously since 1969, Jim Splaine has been Portsmouth assistant mayor for six terms, Police Commission and School Board member, as well as New Hampshire state senator for six years and representative for 24 years. He can be reached at jimsplaineportsmouth@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Splaine: Let's abandon hate as we move onto 2024
