There’s a lot of hate in the world today. Though we have worked and worked to become better educated and, in the process, better human beings, we continue to take two giant steps backward for every step forward we seem to take as a society.
Case in point. I was watching a small snippet of Donald Trump’s town hall meeting and heard someone – someone I assume is a voter – ask when we’re going to get rid of all the Muslims because they are building training camps to attack us right here on our own soil.
Another case. A student in Texas was arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school, which his teacher thought was a bomb, simply because he was not a white American.
What the hell are we coming to as a country? Mind you, I come from a horribly racist background. When I was a kid I heard my family use terms that I won’t even type here using lots of asterisks because they were so vulgar and hateful. Thankfully, I managed to beat the odds and not follow in my family’s redneck footsteps.
I’m not sure where all this hate gets us. Believe me, I’ve visited the hater world in my younger days, blaming everyone else for our country’s woes, from illegal immigrants and women to minorities who got a job instead of me. Let’s face it, being a white guy in his late 50s is not exactly a picnic these days. I get discriminated against now, particularly in the workplace where employers hire a younger (more energetic) person to fill a fairly senior role, a role I was born to have.
It is easy to blame others. It’s far more difficult to blame yourself for any shortcomings you have in this world of ours. For instance, I didn’t get a lot of those jobs because I suck at interviewing, my mind jumps around like a pinball machine and I have horrible anxiety, especially when I’m facing a panel of decision makers across from me asking questions that have nothing to do with the job I am interviewing for.
Again, thankfully, somewhere along the way I dropped all this nonsense. Saying such and such religion, race, creed, orientation, gender, etc. is to blame for something wrong in our lives, in our country or in our world is just a bunch of B.S. It’s the lazy person’s escape, because it’s either too hard to become educated about the real issues or because it’s fun to stir the pot and pass on complete lies about other people.
It would be bad enough for us to do this wholesale hatchet job on an individual. But we like to make sweeping statements about entire segments of our population, just because they are different from us or we simply haven’t taken the time to understand them.
For example, what did “the Don” do when the questioner at his rally insinuated that the president was a Muslim and a foreigner? Nothing. He just let the lie, well, lie. He didn’t stop the hate. He just let it ride, like a crazed gambler at the roulette wheel, betting it all on red and then doubling down.
Now, I’m not always a president lover. I do believe the office deserves unwavering respect, not the person in it. But I’m not a hater. Hell, I didn’t even hate Nixon, who shows his disdain and disrespect for us all through his shenanigans.
Why don’t I hate? Quite frankly, because it takes way too much energy. It’s like a cancer on your soul, becoming blacker and more caustic with each vile statement released in a breath. Feeling such hate condemns you to a life where everything beyond your tiny world is to be reviled, suspected, questioned, categorized and rejected. You stop listening to others, and worse, you stop listening to reason because you’ve retreated into the compound with a take no prisoners mindset.
And like all bullshit, and I’m talking about the manure kind now, you spread it readily and spread it deep because misery loves company. You become consumed with the spreading of it, willingly buying a ticket on the hate train because you’ll be welcomed aboard by a lot of people just like you – fellow haters who have also closed their minds.
Sad, since hate leads nowhere at all. Remember the Nazis? Remember where all their hatred led them? The persecution of the Jews. That’s right. The wholesale slaughter of a race. Right here in the U.S., our suspicion of citizens, U.S. citizens, caused us to arrest and jail Japanese-Americans and put them in concentration camps on our own soil.
Sure, we hide behind convenience, such as saying we are adhering to our “Christian” beliefs or hold fast to the nonsense that millions of Mexicans are pouring over the border daily to steal our jobs. Yeah, right. Like any American wants to be paid pennies to pick our crops, make our beds in a hotel or be a servant in a rich person’s house.
Well, I for one reject all this uneducated hatred wrapped up in a neat little bow of self-righteousness. What does the Bible say about this all? Oh yeah, “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”
There’s quite a judgment day a comin’. Call it karma if you like or go with the Biblical version of the Rapture. Paybacks come in many different forms. I have one relative who is so consumed by hatred that it has made him old long before his time and caused all sorts of health problems, including a couple of strokes and the loss of his arm. Hatred has literally eaten him alive. Talk about payback time.
Hatred doesn’t have an upside. It eats away at you. It takes away your happiness. It makes you miserable and fills you with regret. It saps your joy and causes you to see nothing but the bad in life, rather than the amazing good all around you.
I’m not going to tell you not to hate. That’s your own journey, not mine. I fought my demons and overcame them. The hatred is gone. I don’t wish anyone harm in this world, only happiness and peace.
But I will say this. If all you want to do in life is point fingers at others and say they are responsible for all the misery out there, or your own misery for that matter, let’s just save some time and not be friends. I’m not listening and you are wasting my time.
In the Emerald City, letting the Hater Express roll right on by,
– Robb