The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis. ~ Danté
Reacting hatefully doesn't make anything right ... So ... How? What? I'm thinking about that today.
"Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it." ~M.L.King, Jr.
"Never in this world can hatred be stilled by hatred; it will be stilled only by non-hatred -- this is the law of eternal." ~Buddha
"Hatred is the madness of the heart." ~Lord Byron
"Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it."
~Seneca
"Those who hate you don't win unless you hate them; and then you destroy yourself."
~Richard Nixon
"I will not permit any man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him."
~Booker T. Washington
“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.” ~Chesterton
“Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.” J.F.Kennedy
“Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality” J.F.Kennedy ... Or maybe Dante.
“The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie - deliberate, contrived and dishonest - but the myth - persistent, persuasive and unrealistic” again ... Kennedy.
“Tolerance is another word for indifference.”
William Somerset Maugham quotes (English short-story Writer, Novelist and Playwright, 1874-1965 ... And another of his because it made me laugh when I saw it this morning ... “Love is what happens to a man and woman who don't know each other”) indifference is opposite love
I am trying to think about the unthinkable. During this time of quiet I've inadvertently seen several media presentations specifically produced because of 911 ... One was on conspiracy theories surrounding the attacks. The other, a movie, My Name is Khan ... I'll post a link to the trailer. For me it was a story of Aspergers Syndrome, but it's intent is to present the idea of American Moslem's as ... not all jihadists. Khan was a person who believed there are good people and bad people represented in each people group. Maybe, the conspiracy theory movie, Loose Change, presents a similar idea. What I notice in myself is an impatience with women of Moslem faith who have no ability to share about basic concepts of their faith ... while wearing the hijab with what looks like disdaining arrogance. With others I have sat and visited with locally, their donning of the hijab seems to be a statement of identification with their African ancestry ... again, with no working knowledge of Islam. It doesn't specifically bother me to see women wearing the hijab ... It is supposed to be a garment of dignity. What bothers me, is seeing the hijabwear women. There is no dignity in ignorance. The material presented by the conspiracy theorist ... It's hard to think about and it's hard not to think about it ... It's impossible to imagine the soul of one willing to shed the blood of 911. Hatred seems like the only possible motivation for such an unholy act. There is a labyrinth of truth leading to the inception of the 911 attack on humanity. Where is the truth of 911? That's on my mind. Also ... I feel not good about this country's character and goodness being used as a weapon against us ... And the loss of personal freedoms because of potential risks. My friend who lives on the border was telling me about two people who blogged about atrocities in Mexico being brutally murdered and their mutilated bodies hung on display on the brigde between our countries. She said our political rhetoric claims the Borders are safer then ever ... But she and I used to be able to walk across those very bridges. That guy who was a guy with a gun who the guys at my CFI school were buzzing about ... He had been detained from starting class with our group because he was down in South Texas trying to sort out the murder of a man who jet-skied (with his wife) into the wrong place. The border of Texas is not a safe place. I remember a few years ago some stories of border patrol agents who were on trial for the death of someone in a border dispute. Law enforcement people on trial for enforcing ... Things continue to deteriorate. There are plenty of examples in the Bible where God said not to tolerate wrong practices.
I read a poem I cannot forget. It hurts to remember it ... the words which began to arrive in a swirling snow the winter after.
I know hatred isn't holy. It can't possibly be holy in any person's religious lexicon. And yet ... The gash of this is unsuctured. I hear a call to tolerance, and of course tolerance is part of the sinew of our nation ... But the taste of innocent blood can't be swallowed. Shouldn't be swallowed.
Hegel ... "The wounds of the spirit heal and leave no scars." I see it true in a private part of my life ... The scars which encased my heart ... miraculously falling away. I yearn to come through the fire of this little personal hell without the smell of smoke clinging to my garment ... my shelter ... my dignity. Sometimes tolerance is simply intolerable.
I do hate the very idea of security personal at domestic airports ... screening American pilots ... . I do hate the idea of a mosque being built near the pain saturated ground where innocent lives ended at a jagged edge of an Islamic hatred. It doesn't seem right, because it is not right.
I trying to sort this out for myself. I think it's very important.
I heard that Perry's stance of gun control is "use both hands". Nice sound bite. Somebody needs to get their feet on the rudder pedals at very least.
No comments:
Post a Comment