#hate
NEVER GROW ACCUSTOMED TO HATE
When haters are all around us…trying to wear us down…
Let them know, no matter how hard they try…
no matter how long they wait….
We will never back down
We will never give in
And we will never grow accustomed to their hate.
WORDS OF HATE
This goes out to anyone who’s ever felt the hurt of being called a name.
The sting when someone uses a word meant to malign you…
meant to denigrate…besmirch…defame.
Sometimes their words are obvious:
You’re ugly, you’re worthless, you’re stupid, you’re fat….
Words like these are meant to belittle you…
You can’t get more obvious than that!
Sometimes their words are meant for more people than just you…
as, with a malicious and malevolent grin,
they use words to attack your nation, your religion, your gender
who you love…or the color of your skin.
Sometimes they’ll even take words of love
like woke, diversity, equality, and inclusion…words that truly make a country great
and by attaching their own false meaning…and saying them with contempt
turn words of love into words of hate.
Sometimes…and it’s hard to believe they do not find this odd…
they will even say their words of hate come directly from their God.
The paradox I see…when I stop to think this through…
is how once they say their ugly, hateful words…
their words fit them…not you.
I pray for the day they understand how, when it comes to beauty in the world,
they’re making a huge mistake…
how with every ugly word they utter…and uglier world they make.
For those of you on the receiving end of their ugly words…know this:
It is their hearts that are ugly…for it is our heart that holds the key
as we look out onto the world as to all the beauty we will see.
I am sad when people use hateful, ugly words to describe you…
but what makes me sadder by far…
is how their hearts won’t let hem see…just how beautiful you are.
RECIPE FOR HATE
There is a simple recipe for hate…you may have run across this recipe before…
Hitler used it in Germany…to create a Holocaust…and war.
First…you pick a group within your country…and you convince your people this group to hate…
by repeating how these people are keeping your country from being great.
You call these people horrible names…you hurt them…treat them with disdain…
because you know hate is not effective unless it causes pain.
And if you can tie hate to a religion…well…the more hate you can create..
because once you affix hatred to a God…you get a more intense and deeper hate.
And since you don’t want the people you are brainwashing to hear opposing views
you isolate them from the outside world…and you control the news.
Because from the oldest ones among us…to the youngest…from the elderly to the youth…
you want the lies that you are feeding them to be taken as the truth.
If someone speaks in opposition…saying truths you don’t want to hear…
you turn your hate upon them…you want them to live in fear.
You ban the books they’re reading…destroying another freedom link…
because hate must be in control…of what people do and say and think.
You ban the teaching of history…because you don’t want our past atrocities known….
It better serves your hate to write a history of your own.
For you know if you’re going to control a person’s future…if your hatred is going to last
you must do everything within your power to eradicate the past.
In Germany Hitler stirred up people’s hate…and other people and countries lived in fear…
but I never thought I’d see the day his recipe for hate would surface here.
I thought after the lessons we learned from Hitler and the Nazis…
It would be difficult to corrupt good women and good men….
but under Trump and the Republican party…it’s happening again.
Many of us whose eyes and hearts and minds are still open…can see where this is heading
and must do everything within our power to stop this recipe from spreading.
So we stand up, we speak out, we protest…we do whatever we can to cause a fuss
to show this latest group that their recipe for hate…will never be accepted by us.
TO THOSE WHO'VE CHOSEN HATE
We have a choice to love or hate in this world we’re trying to create.
Today I direct my attention…to all those who have chosen hate:
I’m finding it very difficult these days when I see your prejudices…your wars
when I see the damage your hate can do…not to add my hate to yours.
Hate is an invasive weed whose growth is difficult to reverse.
and when I add my hate to yours…it will only makes things worse.
What makes this so difficult for me…when I see the heartache your hate produces
the pain and suffering too….
Is that I really want to hate you back…for the hateful things you do.
Even though I know hate breeds more hate as it contaminates and pollutes the air.
Which means instead of stopping or reducing hate…now there’s more hate everywhere
I am not afraid however…for no matter what hate you choose
whatever form of hate I’m seeing….
I will fight to make it stop with every fiber of my being.
When I fight to stop your hate…your wars…your prejudices
which always and in sorrow…
I’m not just fighting for myself today…but for too the children of tomorrow.
This is my daily dilemma in the world I’m trying to create…
to find away for love to lead me out of this horror…without giving you my hate.
I know there’s no easy solution…but at the end of every day
I pray that I have done my best…that I have found a way
to speak up…to confront hate…without my own hate coming through…
to face your hate with courage and love…
and not let my hate…turn me into you.