HATE

(In my latest attempt to drive traffic to this website, I have been told that I need to consistently provide new content. In other words, to keep this blog active and current. To the three of you out there who have been checking in at this URL in the hopes that one day I would do exactly this... Thank You.)

I want to address hate.

As in this nation has gone plum crazy with hatred and blame, and way too many of us are blaming one person for this. A guy by the name of Donald Trump.

But our president is only the symptom; the disease marches merrily on.

To claim that hate is the exclusive province of the political right is naive. Same too for the right to say this of the left. To reduce entire demographics of people as too dense or too rural or too fragile to be redeemed is pure folly.

Let me be clear: I say no to hate. I say no to all those hate the haters while those who hate hate (AKA lovers) bravely point out that hate is a poor substitute for progress or logical thought. I hate that. I hate the hate that masquerades as political and social thought. I hate the twisted logic that persuades those who hate hate to hate. I hate the hate that haters employ toward their own masturbatory self-service. I hate the idea of not working toward equality and dignity but instead working to extol or decry one group or another. I hate the idea of dressing up hate and calling it love. And I hate the fact that I have had to say the same damn thing for the two thousandth time.

Surely this is the first time I say it here on Your State of Soul, but this has been the mantra of my life: that all are deserving of Love, that all have the capacity to Love, and that everyone - EVERYONE - is equal. Which means, my doubting friends, that when we pretend that this group over here must be treated differently than that group over there, this is pure bigotry.

We must guide others to be strong and recognize their own self-value. We must not guide them toward the idea that they need to be compensated by creating a set of rules for them and only them. This kind of thinking is responsible for all the world's ills. And somehow because we wish to direct our ire toward Whites and Republicans and rural denizens, this will produce a prouder and more moral America?

Hogwash.

I firmly believe in treating you as my equal. Period. If you say or do something I deem odious, I'm going to call you on it. And I'm going to ask why and invite a dialogue, where I have as much opportunity to learn from you as

you do from me. There are reasons individuals do the things they do. I respect where everyone comes from, the forces which mold us.

I will stand against you and will not budge if you wish to harm another human being.

But I will not harm you. I will love and respect you.

Because that's what drives True Positive Change. And I am an agent of that Change.

- Mark