How do we address all the hate that we have now? The only thing I can attribute what is happening in the world is because of hate. Hate is such a big subject it is hard to write about. I am a believer we are taught to love and we are taught to hate. I swear some people just look for excuses to hate. They use their hate as a tool to lash out for their own failures. I am not any different from the person next to me and I am capable of feeling the hate that is all around me. There are things I passionately hate such as racism and bigoty. I hate bullies. One thing I have never let happen to me is to hate something so much that I would drive a truck into a group of people celebrating the New Year. That is hate that has been distorted into a rage I never want to feel but I need to try and understand. In fact, I think understanding what causes this rage may just help us all avoid the violence that this rage can cause.

Is there a difference in the hatred and rage that leads to a school shooting to the hatred and rage that leads a person to drive a truck into a group of New Years Eve celebrants? I would say, yes. A child’s rage where they may feel compelled to bring a gun into a school and start shooting other children is something you would think good parenting would be able to help solve. With all we know about the problems of school shootings why are they increasing in frequency? Much of it is because of the hate their parents themselves bring home every day. We also know that social media has brought a whole new type of bullying to the world. We are always looking for someone to blame because it can’t be us. These are things that will lead to hatred and that hatred can lead to the rage that can lead to very destructive behavior that is occurring way to often in our schools. It is the rage that we must control. I believe the farther we get away from Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion the more hatred we will experience and that may lead to more rage that will cause destruction and death.

Because of the Hatred that can be turned into Rage we need to identify ways that we can prevent the death that we are seeing on almost a daily basis. I am a gun holder but I think we have to restrict the access to guns for all minors. Being a hunter and knowing that most hunters have gone through some kind of gun safety training I feel no parent should be able to give a child access to a gun unless that child has gone through the same training. A gun is not a toy and we need to be trained in the responsible use of firearms. We need to hold parents responsible for the violence children commit when the telltale signs are there and have been ignored by the parents. When the hatred has been fed by the parents to the child they have to be held just as responsible as the child. Children are not born with Hate; it is something that we have been taught.

I am tired of the term woke. When you rename the truth to being woke and using that as an insult the world is in for the real bad hair day that we are currently having. I saw a posting where the person stated that Fox News has accomplished the damage to our parents that they claimed video games would cause their children. I think that there is a lot of truth to that. I feel that what people call conservative news is meant to feed the hatred which can turn into rage. When the truth is treated as lies and the lies are treated as the truth the results are going to be hatred that can be turned into rage. Conservative news is not just an American thing. It is a world-wide problem that is used to stoke the anger in many of the problem areas in the world. Conservative news, Fundamentalist news, Christian news are all forms of news meant to manipulate people and, in many cases, stoke the racism and bigotry that helps feed the hatred in the world. I have turned off all Cable News and I truly think we would be a much more unified country and a much less destructive world if everyone did.

Do I feel hatred? The answer would have to be yes there are many things I hate. I hate green peppers. I hate onions on my pizza. Seriously, there are things like racism and bigotry that I truly hate. I was born in 1953 and went through the Civil Rights Movement. I grew up during the Vietnam war.  Would I hate a Racist? Yes! Would I hate a Bigot? Yes! Just like technology pushes us forward so should we evolve emotional and educationally to end racism and bigotry. The thing is I know that my hatred will not make them go away. Racism and Bigotry will only go away when we embrace the diversity of our communities, our country, and our world. Racism and bigotry will not go away until we start allowing everyone to be included in the political processes. Racism and bigotry will not go away until we truly embrace equality. The people that campaign against Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are the very people that stoke the hatred that divides our nation and the world. Divided we are weak and more easily manipulated.

I am believer in the truth so I hate people that lie and then treat me like a liar when I am speaking or writing the truth. I hate that we have to fact check our Elected Officials but I hate even more that so many would be so willing to believe the lies because it just feeds their hate. It just makes me want to work harder to search and write the truth.