Differences evaporate when we talk to each other

Two things happened in connection with Martin Luther King Jr. Day that made me proud to be a Southeast Missourian.

First, a video produced by students and faculty at Southeast Missouri State University along with some marketing professionals was shown during the MLK celebration at the university. It was a video about diversity presented in a simple but brilliant format. The video has become something of a sensation on the Internet. If you haven't seen it yet, go find it.

Second, Chris Pobst, the sports editor of the Standard-Democrat in Sikeston, Missouri, wrote a thoughtful and challenging response to comments on the Standard-Democrat's website to a story about marchers advocating for changing the name of Sikeston's Main Street in honor of Dr. King. It was a beautiful effort.

Let's consider the video. Organizers of the annual King Day celebration at the university wanted something different. They got it. Thanks to the participation of marketing students, faculty members and marketing professionals, a project was developed to encourage students to talk to each other about their differences and about the human condition we all share.

Last fall booths were set up on campus with labels like "Ask a Muslim" or "Ask a Caucasian" or "Ask a Mexican" or "Ask a Christian." The idea was to let students ask anything they wanted to about anything.

What struck me was how simple the questions were and how answers were provided, whenever an answer could be provided, with similar simple, unscripted responses. This was not rocket science. It was conversation -- the start of a continuing, larger dialog that is bound to lead to understanding and healing of the wounds of division.

I watched the video once. Then I watched it again. Then I asked my wife to watch it.

When the video was over, we both had tears in our eyes. And smiles on our faces that something so splendid had come from Cape Girardeau's own university.

One reason the video makes such an impression is the marvelous editing by Aaron Eisenhauer. I single Aaron out because I know, after half a century of editing print stories, how difficult it can be to create something intelligent and understandable out of raw material.

My wife, for the first time in my half-century of writing columns, asked me to include a message from her: "The video brought tears to my eyes. It was stunningly simple, poignant and pertinent. Let's hope it helps us all to be and do better. Thank you and kudos to SEMO."

I couldn't have said it better.

Stay with me a few more minutes while we look at Chris Pobst's commentary, which made its way to the Southeast Missourian's Opinion page.

First of all, Pobst is an extraordinarily good writer any time, but he lit a candle where darkness abounds with this heartfelt column.

Pobst was motivated to speak up by anonymous comments posted in response to the Standard-Democrat's straightforward story about the annual King Day march in Sikeston and the goal of honoring Dr. King by renaming Sikeston's Main Street.

You can imagine what some of the comments were. And since comments on newspaper websites are unfettered, they can -- and do -- become weapons of idiocy. Pobst took a stand. It was a brave thing to do. It was a noble thing to do.

I would like to think that anyone who sees the SEMO video on diversity and reads Chris Pobst's commentary will be, as my wife suggested in her reaction, a better person for the experience. I know I am.

We humans will never be entirely rid of the divisions that hurt us in so many ways. But if we can't talk to one another, if we can't make an effort to learn about our differences, if we can't discover how much we share as an earthbound family, we can only expect those divisions to grow deeper and meaner.

Thank God for the efforts of a few, like those who made the SEMO diversity video and like Chris Pobst, who have let their voices be used as instruments of healing and accord. I am proud.

Joe Sullivan is the retired editor of the Southeast Missourian.