When Both Sides Hate

The recent tragedies that have occurred in Boston this past week have brought out a lot of America’s worst behaviors, and with good reason. Being attacked on America’s Homeland is not something that we are used to, nor is it something that we will tolerate. There are a probably a myriad of insignificant reasons why many people of the world hate Americans, and there are a few major reasons as well, mostly geopolitical and economical. But hate is what is fueling many if the world’s problems today.

I have a friend that recently shared a picture on Facebook. It was the very graphic picture of the dead Boston bomber. The caption under the picture read:

“Boston Marathon Bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Was it worth it? F*** him and his God. “

Whoever posted the picture and wrote the caption capitalized “God”. They must have the same one. I just looked at the picture and thought about how much hate there is in the world today. I even commented on it:

“So much hate coming from both sides.”

I had an immediate response to my comment on the picture from the same person that “Liked” what I had just said: “What should we do with these pieces of sh** Del take them out to dinner? To bad the other one is alive” (cut and pasted). I was confused. He “liked” what I said, but dissed my comment. He must be one of those “Mental Pygmies” I have heard so much about.

But think about it a little while. Why does one group of people hate another? Why did Hitler hate the Jewish people? Why do skinheads hate everybody that is not white? Is it narrow-mindedness? Maybe. Is it a lack of education? Perhaps.

What about social and cultural influences? What about political influences? White supremacists raise their kids to hate black people, but if you ask the kids, they don’t know why they hate them, they just do. It is like the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s. Generations go by and nobody knows why they are feuding. They just are. They just hate.

Hitler had some mental issues. The terrorists that we are dealing with today have deep rooted religious beliefs that we will never understand. They hate Christians and Christianity. They hate anything from the western world. We think that they are crazy, they think that we are. White supremacists think that they are right and what they do is in the name of God. What makes them any different from the Jihad terrorists?

I was listening to NPR today while running some errands. There was a physicist on there that was commenting on how many of the countries of our planet are getting together peacefully to coexist in outer space on the International Space Station and sharing the satellite lanes over the equator. What he couldn’t understand was why we are cohabitating peacefully in outer space when we can’t get along on the ground? He went on to say that he and all of his colleagues have a cosmic view of life on earth, rather, the view that an astronaut sees when he looks out of his window while in orbit. There are no color coded countries; there are no dotted lines of political boundaries. There is just the earth for all to share. What if there were no more political boundaries? What if there were just “regions formally known as…”?

Hate and greed created these boundaries.

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them who curse you, do good to them who hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you, and persecute you (Matthew 5:44).

Maybe we don’t have to take our enemies out to dinner as my detractor from above asked. But instead of bombing them, let’s offer to help them rebuild, reorganize or just let them know that we care. I am hoping that our government will lend a hand to China this week after their bad earthquake.

I fully agree that any one person or group of people that wreak the kind of havoc that we saw in Boston this week should be held accountable to the fullest extent the law allows. Every act has its consequences, right or wrong, good or evil. If we are not held accountable here, we will be held accountable somewhere else. We can't run from our responsibilties.

And finally, as incredibly hard as it may be to do, we must forgive. We cannot move on with a peaceful heart until we learn how to do this. It is not our place to judge, although we may be angry and feel we are right in our judgments and lack of forgiveness.

Oscar Wilde once said "Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much."

John Lennon may have had a good point. Imagine.

Once again, thank you all for reading. Though this may not be some of my best work, it is something that I felt I needed to say. Always do a good deed for someone you don’t know, work hard and give the Good Lord thanks for everything, good or bad.

©2013 By Del Banks