Last Saturday night, the 2d of December, I was safely and warmly ensconced in our Recreational Vehicle on top of the Appalachian Mountains near Winchester Virginia. To while away the long hours of darkness I watched the very old movie "12 Angry Men" starring Henry Fonda and written by Richard Rose. The screen play was filled with expressions as "you know those foreigners" and "you know the children of today" and "those people cannot be trusted" and "those people are not like us."

I was spellbound, the intensity of the movie, the acting involved mesmerizing me and yet, I found myself looking inwards toward myself as the movie progressed. The more the movie progressed the more I was examining my own thoughts, values and philosophies and the more I examined myselfthe more I found myself lacking.

The entire issue of course is based on prejudice, or pre-judgement, based on any reason, race, creed, philosophy or any other preconceived concept which one uses as a measuring stick to validate one's emotions towards another. This internalization of introspective examination is painful as certainly I know that I am well aware how dangerous it is when one finds that he is lacking. To quote Thomas Fuller, "A fox should not be of the jury at a goose's trial."⁽¹⁾; applies directly towards the movie of course. Another quotation that I feel applies was written by T. J. Hogg in 1820: "An oration proving that the religion of Mahomet is false would fatigue us, because we are already convinced; so, if it attempted to show that it its true, because we can never be persuaded that it is true."⁽²⁾

An event that occurred earlier in the evening was indirectly the cause of this assault on my person by myself.

On arriving at the campground where I normally stay in that area, I had left the RV to connect the utilities leaving the ignition keys inside. Once the utilities were connected and when I was more than eager to go back inside to get warm, I found that "Dog" had stood up in the window and had locked me out of the RV. While Dog was very comfortable it was cold outside.

Many of the residents of the campground are what I would classify as transient workers who; for many reasons; live quite different life styles that what I am accustomed to. Some have had problems with the law, many have relationships that are very convoluted in ways I find difficult to accept and more than a few have substance abuse problems. Some are combinations of all of the above and are complicated further by the clothing they wear, their hair styles and body adornments.

It is all too easy to catagorize these people solely on apparent physical manifestations based on our own value systems: ergo: individual has a long ponytail or has a nose ring without ever going any deeper. Their looks and outward appearance is different than mine so there far less value than mine without taking into consideration the individual

In this case several individuals who I have socialized only an insignificant period of time went well out of their ways to resolve the issue, actually placed calls to find help and eventually one located a jimmy bar "Slim Jim" that allowed the unlocking of the RV and allowing me back inside and getting warm. Yet, I know that I had been just as guilty as anyone in the movie by allowing prejudices to rule my emotions and it took the movie to rudely bring this to my attention.

Another quotation "I try not to be prejudiced, but do not make headway against it⁽³⁾." is very true for me, and I need constant reminders or I have a tendency to slack off. I apply this towards myself but attempting to re-evaluate but find myself lacking all too frequently. I need constant reminders that "Do not tell me what you are, but rather, show me what you are"⁽⁴⁾ is what I should be doing.

Charcot expressed far better than I when he wrote "In the final analysis, we see only what we are ready to see, what we have been taught to see. We eliminate and ignore everything that is not part of our prejudices"⁽⁵⁾.

1. Thomas Fuller: Gnomologia. 1732

2. T . J. Hogg: Letter to F. B. Shelley, Feb 1820

3. E. W. Howe: Sinner Sermons, 1926

4. John Locke: Essay, 1690

5. J. M. Charcot: De l'expectation en medecine, 1857