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Yesterday a hate bomb disguised as an essay was hurled into my mailbox. As I read the mean-spirited, vitriolic screed, I felt the usual sickness in the pit of my stomach. It has become a familiar feeling. I feel it every time I hear an ethnic slur directed at a human being. I feel it when I read about atrocities. It is a deep and overwhelming sadness. What has happened to our species? |
We know only that we are living in these bodies and have a vague idea, because we have heard it, and because our faith tells us so, that we possess souls. As to what good qualities there may be in our souls, or who dwells within them, or how precious they are, those are things which we seldom consider and so we trouble little about carefully preserving the souls's beauty. |
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Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true. |
The essay vomited upon my computer screen and although I was aware of some valid points, they were virtually obscured in a tantrum of anger and hatred. The writer behind the words was attempting to identify the sins and sinners who are responsible for the destruction of our planet. And yet, as she railed she merely became a tool of that very destruction she railed against. |
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And what will you do with your hatred, my dear correspondent? What will it create? What will it heal? How will you make this world a better place? Can your hatred unite our warring factions? |
I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him. |
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It is from numberless diverse
acts of courage and belief that
human history is shaped. Each
time a man stands up for an ideal,
or acts to improve the lot of others,
or strikes out against injustice,
he sends forth a tiny ripple of
hope, and crossing each other
from a million different centers of
energy and daring, those ripples
build a current which can sweep
down the mightiest walls of
oppression and resistance. |
In March, I appeared on a cable access show in Spokane Washington, hosted by a Native American Professor named Raymond Reyes. His belief is that "courageous conversations create caring communities." He provides a forum for disparate groups to engage in dialogue, and allows people to tell their "sacred stories." Raymond Reyes is an alchemist. He transforms fear into understanding and hatred into love. His show is a place of healing. It is a place of hope. |
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My half-hour appearance went very quickly; so much to say, so little time. |
Hatred is the madness of the heart. |
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Something of vengeance I had tasted for the first time; as aromatic wine it seemed, on swallowing, warm and racy: its after-flavor, metallic and corroding, gave me a sensation as if I had been poisoned. |
Raymond knew that I had been part of a newsgroup on which Jews had been referred to as "two-legged garbage." We discussed my reaction and I read my response. |
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Even though I'd felt the pain and that awful sickness inside, I'd resisted the temptation to engage in battle. How could I fight this man when I stand on a street corner each Saturday protesting war? Cyberspace is no excuse for hypocrisy. And so, I attempted a dialogue. I wondered aloud what had caused him to feel so much hatred. I wondered about his experience with Jewish people. I spoke with honesty and compassion. |
Let people talk, let them blame you, condemn you, imprison you, even hang you, but publish what you think. It is not only a right, but a duty, a strict obligation laid upon anyone who thinks, to express what he thinks in public for the common good. To speak is a good thing, to write is better, to publish is an excellent thing. |
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Instead of being at the mercy of wild beasts, earthquakes, landslides, and inundations, modern man is battered by the elemental forces of his own psyche. This is the World Power that vastly exceeds all other powers on earth. The Age of Enlightenment, which stripped nature and human institutions of gods, overlooked the God of Terror who dwells in the human soul. |
I do not affiliate with any organized religion, because I agree with Wayne Dyer, "that which divides, weakens." However, since I was born of Jewish parents, in the minds of many, I will always be Jewish. People talk of DNA and bloodlines and perhaps it would be laughable if the consequences were not so dire. We are allowing ourselves to be manipulated by the projections of our own shadow nature and are volunteering to be our own victims. |
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Am I saying we should not speak up and speak out against injustice? Of course not. But screaming and cursing the darkness is not speaking out. Speaking out is shining light in every dark corner. |
If you wish to be sure of the road you tread on, you must close your eyes and walk in the dark. |
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You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand. |
Though the challenge is great, I believe we must rise to meet it. There is no other way. The old ways no longer work. The old ways merely widen the divide and play into the hands of those who mean to destroy us. |
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What if we stopped attacking one another? What if we stopped returning hatred with more hatred? What if we stopped killing to prove that killing is wrong? What if we all began engaging in "courageous conversations"? |
The struggle of good against evil must not be carried on by force. If evil is branded, it thinks of weapons, and if we do it the favor of fighting against it blow for blow, we lose in the end because thus we ourselves get entangled in hatred and passion. Finding no opponent, the sharp edges of the weapons of evil become dulled. As long as we wrestle with them, they continue victorious. The best way to fight evil is to make energetic progress in the good. |
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Whatever you do may seem insignificant, but it is most important that you do it. |
Go ahead. Try it. See what happens. Begin with just one person. Don’t try to change them; just listen to them with an open heart. Allow yourself to really hear what he is saying. |
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Watch how you begin to change. Watch how the world begins to change. |
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not. |
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