Hate

The ruins of Carency after it was recaptured by France in 1915. (Public Domain)

While I was out yonder in Sandy Eggo I had the chance to meet face to face with a number of folks whom I have known for a while. I had just never met them in person.

One of those folks was a lady for whom I have a deep and abiding respect. She is a blogger (though she hasn't done that for a while) and an honest to goodness published author. (Her Amazon page is here.) Her husband, with whom I also had a chance to chat was a Marine fighter pilot, flew the mighty F-4 Phantom he did. My kind of people.

Now when our conversation began, Marcia mentioned that, based on my writing, she reckoned that I was on "the other side" politically, so to speak. Well, I do tend to be a bit, shall we say, conservative. Marcia claimed the liberal side of the aisle, again, so to speak.

She figured that we would not see eye to eye on many things. Maybe, maybe not. But we had a fascinating conversation. We agreed that on some things we would probably disagree, on others we might even see things the same way. One thing we did agree on though, we are both Americans. As such we belong to a cantankerous and sometimes unruly folk.

Made me think it did. Rather a lot.

Then fellow Lexican Bill Brandt posted an old Lex post here. Now the formatting of that post left a bit (lot?) to be desired but I wanted to give a tip of the hat to Bill (who I also met for the first time last weekend) for pointing me to that post by Lex. You can read the "original," courtesy of The Wayback Machine, here and here. (Incidentally, if you're judicious with your mouse clicks, you can even get back to Lex's old blog. Be patient, the screen seemed to take a few seconds to update, it was like watching a submarine surface. Perhaps it was just my machine. Honestly, I feel I've found an old treasure. Be patient, it all feels so fragile.)

Now all of that rambling and musing led me to a post I had started a while back entitled simply Hate. Not this post exactly, same title but I essentially threw away the original content. It was simply too vapid, even for me.

For hate is a very strong emotion...

Hatred (or hate) is a deep and emotional extreme dislike. It can be directed against individuals, groups, entities, objects, or ideas. Hatred is often associated with feelings of anger, disgust and a disposition towards hostility. (W)

In fact, hate leads to things which lead to that opening picture. Death and destruction. The sacrifice of young lives on the altar of some old bastard's ambition. It always seems to be that way, those greedy for power convincing others to hate. Convincing others to kill.

In America today, I'm seeing far too much of that. Disagreement is one thing, despising someone for having a different viewpoint or opinion is a very dangerous thing. It leads to hatred and eventually to bloodshed.

There is much evil in this world. It stalks the Middle East and Africa most prominently. Some people there have decided that there is only one way to think, their way. You must either think like them, or die.

In this country we can disagree, but we should also listen. Sometimes the other fellow has a valid point of view, a different perspective which might make some sense.

Of course, sometimes the other fellow is wrong.

Sometimes we're wrong. Whether we like to admit it or not.

But there are agendas being pushed which require, yes require, adherence to a certain point of view. All other opinions are mocked, ridiculed and shouted down. There is no room for discussion, no room for compromise. It's all about power.

And hate.

There are plenty of things to hate in this world.

Let's not tear ourselves apart with hate. Let's not tear the Nation apart with hate.

There are many beyond our borders who would love that. Who would simply love to bring hatred and intolerance to our land.

To bring death and the destruction of everything our predecessors fought and died to preserve. For which many of our brave men and women continue to fight and die for.

We need to be careful what, and who, we hate.

The enemy is at the gates, the wolves are watching, waiting for their opportunity.

Don't let them in.

Like Mr. Franklin said, "We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."