Prejudice is a terrible thing and unfortunately it is something that most of us, apart from the truly pious, are guilty of. I know I am. Many of us might not be guilty of any prejudice towards people from other countries of different creeds or of different ethnicity but we are none the less guilty of prejudice towards people for other reasons.
I go to work by train, and my walks to and from the station take me past a number of riverside flats and houses. These relatively recent developments all have car parks nestling behind automatic gates. The other morning as I walked towards the station I noticed someone attempting to drive out of one of these car parks. This person had driven up to the gate, clearly pressed a button on their remote control and then suddenly realised that only being 6” away from the gates that opened inwards (towards them) was not a good idea. I looked at the car and smiled. It was a BMW. Typical I thought, that explains everything. You see my impression of BMW drivers is that they are self-centred, pea-brained Neanderthals. How judgemental is that? I was quite horrified. I don’t know this person. They’ve done nothing to me. I felt quite ashamed that I should feel so negative towards someone because of their slight error of judgement and their choice of car.
Quakers look for “that of God in everyone”. I think I should try harder to look for ‘good in everyone’. Not always an east task but I must try. If we all became rather less judgemental, bigoted and downright discriminatory this world would be a far better place.
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