The Saddness of Hate

You have to wonder about people who hate so much that they do something like paint swastikas on golf balls and toss them into the yards of African Americans in Michigan. I'm not a psychological profiler or anything like that, but this kind of hate crime was probably perpetuated by kids. It reminds me a lot of walking out ot find the word "Lez" written on the back of my wife's van— in Silly String. Not that that makes it any less of a crime. But it does demonstrate that, despite all the advances that minorities have made (and I'm talking all minorities, not just African Americans), there are still those out there who are teaching their children to hate those who are different. The sad part is that it's not only their own kids they're teaching to hate.

I raised my kids to treat everyone they way they'd want to be treated by others. I raised them to realize this was a unilateral "command": that we were to treat others as we wanted to be treated even if they didn't treat us that way. Then my kids got into school. And unfortunately, the parents of my sons' friends didn't raise their kids the same way and my son turned into something of a bigot for several years. The first time my son dropped a racist comment in our house, I was floored. We had long talks. I made him write reports on movies and videos about the damage hatred does not only to the people who are targeted by hate crimes but also to society as a whole. Unfortunately, his friends had more influence that I did. My son joined the Air Force about a year after graduation and he was tossed into an ethnic melting pot during basic training and I think his eyes were opened a bit. I haven't heard him utter a racist comment for several years now. I was, and still am, saddened by all the hatred my son held onto for so long for those who were different. I'm saddened that his friends now have kids of their own and are passing on the same hatred they grew up with.

I'm saddened by the hatred I see being preached in the name of Jesus. I don't consider myself a Christian but I do attempt to emulate the life that Jesus lead. It was a life in which he unconditionally loved everyone— even those who were different from him. I see preachers like Fred Phelps protesting at the funerals of gays or US soldiers because he says the US is a nation of "fag enablers". I see people like James Dobson (who has no training as a preacher but his doctorate in psychology— so he knows how to use words to manipulate how you think) suggesting that homosexuality can be "learned" and therefore "unlearned". I hear preachers like Jimmy Swaggart saying he's kill a gay man who looked at him wrong and tell God he died. I hear the late Jerry Falwell blaming gays for the attacks on 9/11 and Pat Robertson agreeing with him. It all saddens me because they can't see the damage they're doing to gays, society and especially themselves.

There's a billboard in Colorado (or was on November 21, 2009) that's a caricature of President Obama in a "turban" and implies that he is a Muslim terrorist. The person who paid to have the billboard erected is one of those who does not believe that President Obama is a native born American despite his Hawaiian birth certificate. This billboard shows hatred for blacks, Muslims (a jihad is a Musim holy war) and those of Middle Eastern descent. Unfortunately, it also shows the ignorance of the person responsible for putting it up, who claims that erecting the board was an "act of patriotism". It seems he's forgetting that blacks, Muslims and those of Middle Eastern descent are also citizens of the US.

In mid-December, 2009, a Las Vegas teacher was suspended for telling her students that the Holocaust had never happened. She "informed" them that the photos they saw in books were doctored. That history books were not accurate. She denied that the Nazis had the ability or technology to kill that many people in that period of time. Holocaust deniers are inherently bigoted and prejudiced. This teacher should never be allowed back inside a public classroom again. She has no right to impose her personal prejudices on her students, who are required to be there during school hours.

Mass promotion of hatred isn't something new. Back in 2004, Newsweek did a story on white supremacist music and the labels that produced and promoted their CDs. One such label, Panzerfaust Records (which has since, thankfully, gone out of business) introduced a promotional campaign called "Project Schoolyard", which sought to distribute more than 100,000 free CDs to kids ages 13-19. As the label's founder, Byron Calvert, declared on the now defunct website, "We don't just entertain racist kids, we create them!" The Anti-Defamation League maintains a website of musical groups from around the world that spread messages of hate and racism.

Hatred is based in fear: we fear what is different from us and we fear what we don't understand. Fortunately, fear does not really exist. Just like darkness and cold don't really exist: they're really the absence of something else. Darkness is the absence of light: when you open a door between a dark and light room, the light always goes into the dark room. Cold is the absence of heat: when you put ice cubes in water, they don't make the water cold by sharing their own "cold" with the water. They make the water cold by absorbing the heat from the water. Fear is the absence of Love. If we could all Love unconditionally like Jesus did (and like many other holy men before and since), we would need no laws or governments. But the fear of what is different is, at this point in time, greater than our ability to trust in the power of Love. As long as that continues, hate will continue. And that saddens me. But someday, that's going to change. And that is the hope I hold onto as I strive to Love unconditionally every moment of my life.