Renouncing Hate as a Political Weapon
by Bob Schwartz
Hate is a part of our human experience, as hater and hated. We hope and try to minimize or even eliminate it, but at least a little, there it has been and there it is.
Some will say that its ugliest manifestation is the sort of thing we see in Charleston and in similar incidents. But maybe even uglier, and maybe louder and more common, is the use of hate as a political weapon, sometimes by some very high level and ambitious and otherwise respected political leaders and aspirants.
It may not look like hate. It may be clothed in high-minded rhetoric and ideology. But at its heart, the expressions of how awful, how ungodly, the persons and positions of political enemies are is nothing less than hateful. Hate and intolerance in a good cause, the perpetrators will argue. But hate nonetheless.
We can no more eliminate hate then we can its brighter correlates of love, understanding and compassion. But the least we can ask of those in positions of power and authority, and of those who strive for even higher positions, is to renounce hate as a weapon. They don’t have to go all soft and lovey. But they do have to forego spreading poison and thereby making poison acceptable. It isn’t, and when it becomes so, we shouldn’t be wondering where all the hate comes from. Politician or regular citizen, it comes from us.
Amen, Brother Bob! I totally agree with you. WE are responsible . . . or not. The actions of a lot of our ‘higher ups’ have encouraged violence rather than discouraged it! They can dress up their philosophies with flowery words all they like, but they are still encouraging acts of hatred and they are saying it is OK to be totally irresponsible for how our actions effect our fellow man. What with our leaders encouraging acts of hatred and our national media reinforcing these acts, we are headed into very scary territory. . . I fear that we may have gone too far down that road to turn back. I go back to the old adage that what may SOUND great in theory just doesn’t work in practicality. . . and supporting and encouraging people to protest what they don’t like with violent behavior full of hate is one of those things that has dire consequences.