The Psychology of Hate
We need to give love, not hate, more room in our everyday interactions, but we also need to acknowledge and address hate before we can really know love. We appreciate beauty because of the ugliness and appreciate light because of the darkness.
If we put the dark glasses of hate and judgment on, we will miss on so much beauty that our world can offer. How about instead we approach each other with interest and curiosity, what can I learn from or about you today and what beauty can I find in our encounter?
If you pick and choose who you call a terrorist and what you consider a hateful act, then you need to look within. When my wife finished her talk about Islam at a local church, the group of women asked if they can show solidarity through wearing the hijab for a day or protesting the travel ban, and she told them “will you take a bullet for me?”, her point is that diversity is a way of life and a commitment to justice and equality for all, so if you believe that your life is more valuable than mine, or if you think it is okay for the children in Syria, Palestine, Yemen, Burma or at the Southern border to suffer because they are not your children, or if you don’t speak up on behalf of your autistic, Jewish, disabled, or refugee neighbor then you need to take an honest self-inventory and try to face your demons of unconscious explicit or implicit bias.
I think healing is not always pleasant and I strongly believe that for our country and our world to heal we need to have uncomfortable and difficult conversations, some of which like this one are way overdue. I believe that hate is way out of style and needs to be eradicated.
Hate is an epidemic that we need to tackle together, preferably proactively rather than reactively, not only to make the world a better place for us but also for the sake of our children and future generations. I care deeply about tending to our children’s emotional health, so I plea to those who plan to continue to hate to please keep the children out of this mess.
If we put the dark glasses of hate and judgment on, we will miss on so much beauty that our world can offer. How about instead we approach each other with interest and curiosity, what can I learn from or about you today and what beauty can I find in our encounter?
If you pick and choose who you call a terrorist and what you consider a hateful act, then you need to look within. When my wife finished her talk about Islam at a local church, the group of women asked if they can show solidarity through wearing the hijab for a day or protesting the travel ban, and she told them “will you take a bullet for me?”, her point is that diversity is a way of life and a commitment to justice and equality for all, so if you believe that your life is more valuable than mine, or if you think it is okay for the children in Syria, Palestine, Yemen, Burma or at the Southern border to suffer because they are not your children, or if you don’t speak up on behalf of your autistic, Jewish, disabled, or refugee neighbor then you need to take an honest self-inventory and try to face your demons of unconscious explicit or implicit bias.
I think healing is not always pleasant and I strongly believe that for our country and our world to heal we need to have uncomfortable and difficult conversations, some of which like this one are way overdue. I believe that hate is way out of style and needs to be eradicated.
Hate is an epidemic that we need to tackle together, preferably proactively rather than reactively, not only to make the world a better place for us but also for the sake of our children and future generations. I care deeply about tending to our children’s emotional health, so I plea to those who plan to continue to hate to please keep the children out of this mess.
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