“There is no place for hate in America—not against Jews, not against Muslims, not against anybody….”
Words of President Biden when he spoke to the nation about America’s unequivocal support for Israel in the face of the unprovoked attack by Hamas over the weekend. He repeated these words yesterday in a White House meeting with Jewish leaders.
I wish what he said was true, that there is no place for hate in America against anybody, but we know it’s not.
If wishing could make something true, but, alas, a FBI report at the end of 2021 said that hate crimes had increased 12% in the U. S. in a year’s time.
These crimes, as defined by the FBI, are committed by people who target someone or group based on race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.
I confess that I don’t understand hate. I don’t know what it feels like to hate someone. I suspect that is true for most Americans.
That Hamas terrorists could kill men, women, children, and babies indiscriminately, including beheading them, is beyond my capacity to comprehend such evil acts.
Hate must be born of a damaged soul and an inability to control feelings with rational reflection.
I cannot believe it is normal. It has to be an aberration in the human psyche that overrides natural feelings of human connection.
I believe a person who hates suffers from feelings of self-loathing to such an extent that they function in the real world by dehumanizing others, making them an “it,” a thing rather than a person.
For this reason hate ultimately becomes self-defeating because it is self-destructive.
That’s how emotions work. Negative feelings lead to negative consequences. Positive feelings lead to positive consequences.
One of the powers of hate is its capacity to deceive haters into believing they will be successful. Often they do achieve some degree of success, but in the end they fail because hate is never self-sustaining.
On the other hand, hates survives longer than it otherwise would when haters form groups and give energy to one another. This is the power of what is called “group-think.” A group gives hate oxygen.
That is why those of us who refuse to hate, who believe in the power of good, of right, of human connection, of respect and decency, must confront hate whenever we encounter it.
Hate usually begins to show itself in hateful words and ugly behavior. We saw it in Charlottesville, Virginia a few years ago when neo-Nazis and white supremacists demonstrated in the streets against Jews and immigrants.
We hear it in the words of politicians who appeal to the worst of human instincts, who exploit people’s irrational fears, and who seek to divide our nation for their own political gain.
The challenge for us is to resist becoming unwitting participants in the growth of hate in our society. While we may not harbor hate for others based on who they are or what race they may be, it is easy to tolerate others who do.
We hear views espoused by others that are mean, ugly, rooted in prejudice or lies or stereotyping, in short, we hear views expressed and statements made that are rooted in hate, and we let them pass.
And letting them pass makes us complicit, makes us culpable for hate being spread without trying to stop it.
That’s all hate needs to grow, people who don’t hate tolerating words and actions that spread it without saying anything, without condemning it, without realizing how dangerous it is to our life together.
Signs at airports ask good people “to say something when they see something” that is not right. That’s what all of us who refuse to hate must do when hate is present. It is something that is not right and we must say something.
This can be done in ways that are not confrontational or that make matters worse. A simple, “I don’t agree with what you said” is often sufficient. What we cannot do is remain silent.
Sadly, we’re living at a time when those of us who refuse to give into hate are being tested by political and religious leaders who are feeding hate to anyone who will listen to them.
The way forward is for us not to give up on good, on love, on respect, on doing what is right, on all the values and qualities that redeem bad situations.
It sounds almost Pollyanna to say that, doesn’t it, just as President Biden did when he said there was no place for hate in America.
But I’m glad he said it, and because he did he pushed hate a little farther to the fringes of our life as a people and made more room for good.
Hopefully, when the circumstances call for it, we will be willing to do the same.
linnposts.com 