About Hate

Here's the thing about hate: It never ends.

It just keeps feeding into itself and it spins and it spins, accelerating with every violent reaction. With every retaliation, hate swells and mutates until it grows wild enough to dull our very senses.

It is easy to kill. However, it is near impossible to stop the momentum of resentment born out of the devastation of killing. When a person is killed, it does not end with them. They are ripped from the community that surrounded them. They were loved, they were needed and they were taken away violently. How does that community react? How would you react? Anger seems obvious to me, revenge seems obvious to me, for I am human and it's in my blood. 

It's probably clear that I am writing this in light of the recent attack on the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris. I don't want to try to make sense of that whole situation, its deeply upsetting for many reasons, but the wounds are very fresh and I don't feel that it is my place to comment on anything specifically. However, it is one of the many instances of senseless killing that is happening around the world at this second. Killing in the name of hate. 

How do we reverse the cycle?

I really don't know the answer. Forgiveness? Probably. But it's hard to fathom the strength required to let go of decades of hurt, anger and confusion. It's even harder to comprehend as a white male living in Canada with a loving family. Forgiveness seems necessary, but it feels disingenuous for me to preach forgiveness when I have no experience with the kind of devastation murder can cause.

Love? Love makes sense. Isn't that what being here on this earth is all about? Working together, making connections with each other, learning together, loving each other and moving forward into the unknown together, as humans. As one.

So, here's the thing about hate: It must end.

-j