Neutral Ground

​Merril said I was becoming a bit of a country music buff.  I guess it was my repeated playing of a song by a guy I had not heard of until recently.  His name is Pierce Pettis and the album is Everything Matters.  The song is called Neutral Ground.  I love it.  “Oh, the train pulled into New Orleans and I made my way downtown, Where saints and sinners chance to meet; what they call the neutral ground, Met a girl on the Rue Royal; she turned my head around, Swirling like the mist that creeps along the neutral ground,”
It is a love song set on Neutral Ground which I found out is an actual place in Louisiana.  In the early 1800rds it was a disputed territory between Spain and the US.  There were skirmishes but neither side wanted to go to war over it.  They agreed neither side would lay claim to it.  Citizens of both countries could use it as long as they did not settle there.  Eventually the US bought it, but the name and place called Neutral Ground remains.
The concept is totally foreign to me.  I have only heard of Neutral Ground being like No Man’s Land.  Woe betide anyone who ventured there.  They wee considered fair game.  Like the area between North and South Korea.  Highly guarded.  Unauthorized people there are shot on sight.
This Neutral Ground was different though.  People could mix and mingle without fear.  People of different races, creeds or ideas.  The idea of it exits to this day - that is as much as it can, being within the domain of one country.
There are prejudices everywhere.  The other night I watched a couple of episodes of Louis Theroux.  One was about black movements filmed before everything broke out again after the death of George Floyd.  One thing became very clear to me.  A person does not need to be white to be racist.  Most whites are not racist, but some are.  Most blacks are not racist, but some are.  Seems to me a change of heart is to be preferred over a change of policy.
Neutral Ground though implies to me that a person is free to express their ideas.  Everyone has a voice.  Everyone has a right to be heard.  I may not like what I hear but that does not mean to me a person does not have a right to say it.
Neutral Ground is getting harder and harder to find.  All over the world there is a polarization.  The days seem to be disappearing fast where a person could express themselves without being howled down.  Doing that in a place known to have a contrary view to mine, is asking for trouble.  But to me that does not mean I do not have a right to hold to what I hold to.  But I need to be wise.