Understanding Is Better Than Hating

When I get old they going to
kill me, process me, and shape
me into a McNugget and some
little kid's gonna eat me at
McNasty's.

Final Message For A While

With some major projects and traveling coming up, this will be my last entry for a couple of weeks. Before I sign off for a while, I'd like to leave a parting thought.

HATE

For most of my life I've grown up seeing the subtle hate, discrimination, and prejudice aimed at African-Americans. Sometimes it was in the form of a joke or off-handed comment. But in the last decade, targeting Blacks has been forgotten. Instead, folks have turned their prejudices on Mexicans and Muslims. Sometimes I get e-mails from people I barely know. Under the guise of "immigration reform" I often see and hear things that disrespect Mexicans. And under the name of "patriotism" I see and read hate-filled comments about Muslims.

First off, Mexico is our next door neighbor. I do not recognize human-made borders — we are all one people. If Mexicans come here to get jobs to feed their families, more power to them. Humans have always migrated, usually in search of a better life. I sometimes hear comments about the Mexicans "invading our country" and "destroying our culture." Come on, don't be silly.

In regards to radical Muslims who engage in violence, I have the very lowest regard for those who harm others. While the violence is wrong, I think it is important to study history and understand the climate that created so much hate. You have to understand how the Jews were essentially DRIVEN from Europe and had few options but to establish a state. You have to understand how the Middle East was abused and exploited by colonial powers, and how they were later used as pawns and proxies during the Cold War. You have to understand how the U.S. is viewed as a blatant hypocrite — talking about democracy while at the same time supporting Middle Eastern monarchies.

What We Need..

There needs to be more civility, more dialogue, more efforts to understand and learn about one another, and less hate. By participating in racism and prejudicism, you are only making the problems of our society worse. I urge everyone to give up the "hate" and replace it with a desire to "understand." There's been enough hate in the history of the world — perhaps it's time to try something different.