A Modern Day Dante

Before I introduce our speaker, Mr. Floyd Cochran, who is the Director of the Pennsylvania-based EVN, Education & Vigilance Network and an ex-...thank God almighty an ex-Director of Propaganda for the Aryan Nations in Idaho, I’d like to talk about another person, a thirteenth-century Italian poet named Durante Alighieri. These days we know him by his nickname, Dante. Dante wrote The Inferno, which is a book about one of Unitarian Universalists’ least favorite topics, hell. Dante got into trouble with the establishment of his time for writing in the common people’s language of Italian instead of Latin, for calling the church of his time a harlot, and for mentioning seven Popes by name as being among the residents of hell.

Unlike Dante, I personally do not believe in a physical hell. But I very much believe in metaphorical hells. Hate is one of them. People seem to condemn themselves to this hell of hate. Just as Dante’s hell has nine levels, there are many levels of hate. I’d say Floyd Cochran as the Director of Propaganda for the Aryan Nations reached the ninth level of hell, but his eyes were opened when his child was born with a physical disability--I believe a cleft palate--and the way his comrades treated him changed all of a sudden. Since then Mr. Cochran has been combating hate and teaching tolerance wherever he goes. Like Dante, he can speak effectively about hell because he’s been there.

Now...if hate is hell, love is heaven. What creates heaven on earth is not just any wimpy, effete, and anemic love, but love that takes on challenges. This kind of love doesn’t ignore or sweep hate under the rug, but addresses it at the root of all hate, fear. Let me give an example from my own life about how my slice of heaven came to be. About twelve years ago, while working as faculty at the University of Cincinnati, I met a twenty-five-old medical student. I would look into her big eyes as I listened to her highly global perspective on life, and I fell head over heels into see-your-face-among-the-clouds-all-the-time, my-world-goes-dark-when-you-close-your-eyes, and may-I-whittle-your-name-on-every-park-bench kind of love. There was just one problem. She happened to be white. As soon as we announced our intention to get married, our families and friends came up with all kinds of low level hate in the form of objections. “If you want to marry an Indian, couldn’t you find someone who is lighter-skinned? They come in lighter shades, you know,” said her mother. “She probably smokes and drinks a lot and routinely has sex with rock stars. Don’t all white women?” said my cousin. “You won’t have any friends. Think of the children. O my God, a marriage is hard enough without all those cultural differences,” said people from both sides. Her parents showed up at our wedding grudgingly, like klansmen at a bar mitzvah.

This year Lauri and I celebrate our tenth anniversary. We have two smart, beautiful, and well-adjusted daughters and more friends than we have time to meet with. Our menu is Italian one night, Indian the next, Mexican the next, and so on. The only cultural differences we’ve found are those between male and female cultures. Now our families would love to pretend that our marriage was all their idea. If we two had yielded to all the fear and hate, our slice of heaven would never have been.

Well, having discussed hell and heaven, we’re now ready meet our visitor who left the highest level of hell behind and is now working hard to create the highest level of heaven. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Dante...I mean, Floyd Cochran.

(April 23, 1998)