I Think Our Problem Is Hate
by James Glaser
November 29, 2011

Just so we know what I am writing about here:

HATE
a : intense hostility and aversion usually deriving from fear, anger, or sense of injury
b : extreme dislike or antipathy : loathing

We have white people in this country who hate black people, but then we have black people who hate white people.
We have people who hate Muslims (black or white).
We have Christians who hate other Christians.
Christians who hate Jews.
College students and college alumni who hate rival schools.
People who hate some professional sports teams.
There are many people in this country who hate poor people and homeless people.
Then I meet people who out and out hate rich people.
On top of that we have people who hate our government
People who hate the police.
We even have people in this country who hate some vegetables.
I have met motor heads who hate Fords, and others who hate Chevys.
So many Harley riders hate Jap bikes.
Some people hate cats, some hate snakes, and still others hate creepy insects.
I guess we can all agree to hate mosquitoes.

Mother, "Now Johnny, eat your brussel sprouts." Johnny, "I don't want to." Mother, "Just try one." Johnny, "No, I hate them."

Somehow we learn the concept of hating people or things at an early age, and I guess it is true that we pass our hates down to our children. Lets say you have a fear or loathing of bugs. If you try real hard not to pass that on, you could end up with a child who studies entomology.

No, I don't know where I am going with this, I just started thinking about all the hate that fills our country. Hate seems to fuel so much of our society.

The government uses our fear to develop enough hate of another country to allow them to send us off to another war. Do we really hate and fear the Iraqis or Afghans? Neither country ever attacked us, nor did either country have the ability to attack us. However, Washington made a case telling us that somehow these two countries had a lot to do with the 9/11 attack. Washington knew, and actually we now know, that none of the attackers of 9/11 were from either Iraq or Afghanistan.

Washington didn't want to attack the countries where our attackers came from (Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Egypt). However, they did want us to start new wars, so they fed us a bunch of fear and hate for the attack, and transferred that hate from those who attacked us to two down-and-out third-world pushovers. Countries that couldn't or shouldn't have been able to fight back. However Washington forgot about, "hate."

After we killed thousands of innocent people with our "Shock and Awe" bombing campaign at the start of these wars, the people of both countries learned how to hate Americans.

We have now decided to pull our troops from Iraq with no sense of victory, and after ten years of combat in Afghanistan the resistance against us is larger than ever. Hate is a powerful tool used to get us into a war, and it is just as powerful a tool when it is used against us.

Some things to think about:

"If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen." BIBLE, I John 4:20

"We hate some persons because we do not know them; and we will not know them, because we hate them."
CHARLES CALEB COLTON, Lacon

"We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another."
Jonathan Swift

"Hate is not a good counselor."
Victoria Wolff

"Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy."
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
BIBLE, Mat 5:43-44

Like I said, I don't know where I am going with this, but I have come to realize that our country seems to feed on hate to a greater extent than it feeds on love. We tell the world that we are a Christian nation, but we refuse to heed the words of Jesus

"Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

So, we claim to be a Christian country and that we follow the teachings of Jesus. We even know that Jesus said that one of the two greatest commandments from the God we say we follow is to love our neighbors, but we don't. To me, it seems that we have given up even trying that as way of getting along in this world.

So, are we really a Christian Nation? I think the amount of hate that has built up in this country tells us we are not, and if we continue down our hateful path, we will never get back to being one.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

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