Blowin’ in the wind…

Hate, what a terrible thing. Look at where it takes us. We kill our brothers. We kill our sisters. We kill our fathers and mothers. We kill our children. It takes us to poverty. It takes us to war. It takes our freedom and it takes our joy. It takes us to starvation and it takes our souls.

Hate is a two way street. Someone “gives” it and someone “receives” it. There are those that hate because someone truly did something that caused them great pain or tribulation while there are others that hate people that they have never met and know nothing about.

Why is that? Why do people hate other people who are complete strangers? Where does that hate come from? We all know you aren’t born to hate, especially people you don’t even know. That simply means hate is taught or gathered due to life experiences. Since you can’t have life experiences with people that are strangers, than that kind of hate must be applied from being taught, being in some sort of environment that includes hate or extending hate to everyone that is like a specific individual that the person has come to hate for whatever reason.

Let’s look a bit more at the teaching and environment part. First of all, they are really the same, teaching and environment. One is direct and one is indirect but they both have the same result. But where did the hate begin? Who was the first person that started to hate and started the chain of hate and what caused hate to initiate?

Was it because of a deep guilt people felt for treating other people as less than they were, less than human, as slaves? Was it because there were people that were slaves and thus inexpensive labor and they took higher paying jobs away from others? Is that why people started to hate? It does beg to question, if that is a reason, why did they hate the slave and not the master as the master is the one that created the situation.

Did the hate come from religion or from social norms of the day such as having a “social level” that induced hate of a “higher social level” or induced disdain of a “lower social level”?

Why do we hate? Why do we seem to hate difference the most? Why do we not embrace difference? Why do we not celebrate difference? What is so wrong with being different? We all are different! Yet, we are all the same, we are all part of the human race.

Many years ago, when the astronauts travelled to the moon, one of the sights that affected them the most was looking back and seeing Earth hanging in space, a small blue ball in the vast universe. Everything that Man has ever been is contained on that little ball.

What if we hold on to that? What if we all realize that we are all family? What if we realize that hate, especially hate that is strong enough to kill 9 people that were complete strangers, worshiping in their church, has no place among us?

The power of hate though isn’t in the hand of the wielders, it is in the hands of the people that receive that hate and have to live with that hate. These are people that have risen up and have sustained and have a genuine joy in life. They have learned to love and know that life is precious and needs to be lived to the fullest because hate is just around the corner. Hate, full of fear, full of anger, full of sadness, full of destruction. That is the fate of haters.

Who really has the power? The people that love or the people that hate?

Long ago, a songwriter wrote about hate and about freedom. I leave you with his words…

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, and how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they’re forever banned?

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.

Yes, and how many years can a mountain exist
Before it is washed to the sea?
Yes, and how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?
Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn’t see?

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.

Yes, and how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, and how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, and how many deaths will it take ’til he knows
That too many people have died?

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.