by James Glaser
August 9, 2004

Hate is such a powerful emotion. It has been quite some time since I hated someone, but let me tell you, that feeling of hate consumed me for a long time.

I hated Vietnamese men for a lot of years. Just the sound of their voice could set me off or even the sound of a helicopter could get my hate level way up there. I would think evil thoughts and if some Vietnamese man looked at me, he would know right away that I wanted to kill him or do something to hurt him.

When I was in high school, my dad had a bar in down town Saint Paul and I still remember how upset so many of the men in there got one day when a couple of Japanese men came in. You could feel the hate building in these former Marines, who had fought is the Pacific twenty years earlier. My dad had the sense to get those two Japanese tourists out of there before things got out of hand.

That was the first time that I saw and felt hate. It had a physical presence, you could feel it in the air, and it didn't feel good at all. When I think about it, every time my own hate would surface, I would get a sick feeling in my stomach and sometimes the sweats would come out. Hate takes a lot out of you.

I worked hard at getting rid of my hate. Oh, I get a flash of it any time I see a Vietnamese, just for a second. It is involuntary and lasts for only a second, until I realize what is going on. My mind equates Vietnamese with both fear and hate and I need reason to tell me that both of those are unfounded.

What about all the hate that fills the minds of people the world over, for us, for the United States of America? It is reported that millions hate us now. I don't believe that number has hit the millions, but I can believe there are more and more people every day who learn to hate us.

Kill my child or kill my wife and I will hate you with a burning passion for the rest of my life. Kill my mother or father and I will feel the same. So how many have we killed just in Iraq? Tens of thousands? Remember after some of our bombing runs on the Iraqi army, it was described that there was only a "pink mist" left. We killed thousands and every one of them was somebody's son and maybe somebody's dad.

What do you think happens when one of our convoys gets hit by a road side bomb? You have to know that anyone around is fair game, women and children too. Our guys are scared and with one shot, many times everybody opens up. That makes more hate, and that hate will last a life time.

How would you feel if the President of some super power kept telling the world that your country was Evil? Year after year this guy tells the whole world that you are evil. I don't think the people of Iran or even North Korea are Evil. They were just born there and they are probably suffering under a bad government, but George Bush never says that those people are good people, no he says their country is Evil. People tend to love the country they were born in and most are raised by loving parents, so they get mad when somebody calls them and their parents Evil.

The world is getting smaller all the time. It wasn't that long ago that the oceans protected us, but 9/11 changed all of that. Now the Hate we have built up over the years is coming back to haunt us. Years ago we had the world wanting to be just like us and countries would go out of their way to help the USA. Now we can't even buy some of our former friends.

Mexico and Canada blew us off when we asked for help in Iraq. How bad is that? Those countries like you and me, but they don't like George Bush or his government. Our President has a tone in his voice and a choice of words that garner us more hate. Lets face it, a lot of Americans really out and out hate George Bush too, so is it any wonder that millions in foreign lands hate him and because of him, us too?

I think we forget that 19 young intelligent men in the prime of their lives hated us so much that they were willing to commit suicide to kill Americans on 9/11. I don't think they are the only ones willing to do that. I don't like to know that people hate us that much.

We have to do something to change the way people feel about us. You and I know that the American people are good, you and I know that the American people want to help those less fortunate than we are, and you and I know that we are so very blessed to have been born here, but much of the world is blinded by Hate. They can no longer see or think of you or me. Right now George Bush and his killing and his threats and his name calling is all they see.

That is going to hurt us for decades, because even if we change the way we do things, vote Bush out of office, there are still tens of thousands of loved ones of those we have killed or maimed, who will hate us until they die. We just have to stop making more of those haters as soon as possible.