Hate. It's been breeding, brewing, festering and exploding for centuries and centuries. Everyday when we turn on the television we're reminded of our differences. Today when I saw the breaking news I was stunned.
An 88-year-old male white supremacist is a suspect in the shooting and killing of Stephen Tyrone Johns, a member of staff security the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. As I listened to the news as it unfolded I couldn't help but feel shocked.
How could another man walk into a museum, at the age of 88 no less, and "allegedly" murder someone in cold blood? Where does such hatred come from? How, after so many years, can Hitler's doctrine still compel people to hate those who are different? I don't understand it and yet I've been so close to it.
Several years ago I remember visiting my brother at his home. I don't remember much about the visit but what I do remember is when I was leaving his room my eye caught a glimpse of what was hanging in his closet. When I did a double-take, I realized it was a Nazi flag.
He had been involved with white supremacists before, but I thought he was through. Unable to comprehend what I was seeing, I left and didn't mention a word. To this day it rips me up inside to think my brother, my flesh and blood, had so much hatred for another group of people.
My brother did finally get over being a white supremacist. I can't imagine it was easy and I can imagine it was a long and rocky road. But he is now one of the most accepting and loving people I know. I look up to him for his courage to stand strong and make a change in his life for the good.
Knowing so intimately the ugly side of white supremacy and knowing people can change, it hurts to listen, to watch and to read the news of an elderly man not willing to open his heart, but instead fill it with the poison of hate and act upon that hate.
Hate will kill your spirit. I watched it as it almost killed my brother's. But love, compassion, tolerance and understanding is what brought him back to life. It will take forgiveness and just as much love and compassion to help us, the 88-year-old man and the other white supremacists out in the world to become more tolerant of each other.
Hate does not cure hate, it only fuels it. Love allows a cure to be found.
Good post I thought it had good insight on what hate can do to a person, and like Tiff I have lived close to it as well. Sometimes its hard to move from a place where such intense hatred is brewing, but just as our brother proved, it can be done.
ReplyDelete