The Case for Hatred and the Power of Forgiveness.

Hatred exists; therefore, it must have a purpose, right? Maybe, even if its only purpose is to make love possible, since everything requires its opposite in order to function ...yin/yang sort of thing.

However, more than likely, hatred exists in order to protect us from harm as we've evolved through time. It's hard to distinguish between anger and hatred; except to say that anger is usually a reaction to a situation, an individual/ group of people, or frustration, whereas hatred could be defined, not so much as a reaction, but as a result of not allowing our angry reaction to die. Hatred is more calculating, conscious, and long-term.

Hate occurs when we refuse to let go of our anger that was aroused by a feeling of being wronged in some way. Instead of forgetting our angry experience(s), we engage our mental capacity to retain and revive facts, events, impressions, etc., and recall previous situations that triggered those angry feelings. Hatred, therefore, serves a very important purpose because at certain times/situations, self-preservation requires that we passionately remember our anger.

The bottom line: there is no avoiding this overwhelming feeling. We must, as sentient creatures, decide if and when hatred is appropriate, and if not, we must figure out how to transcend these strong feelings that are hard-wired into our brains from birth. It's not an easy task.

Not to long ago, sitting in traffic, I was thinking about a "friend" who had double-crossed me. The more I thought about it, the angrier I became. As my anger and "hatred" (or what I thought was hatred) of this person increased, I was all set to do something I should have done a long time ago to protect myself from financial hardship.

Then, as I listened to Hector's story, A Father Finds Peace in Forgiving Daughter's Killer on NPR's StoryCorps on the radio, all of my anger and hatred dissipated. After all, Hector, who had every reason in the world to hate ended up forgiving the man who murdered his daughter. What right did I have to my hatred and anger? By the time, I reached my destination, my desire to act provoked by my malevolent feelings had evaporated, for better or worse, and I did not act. In this specific situation with this specific person, I think it worked out for the best, but in different circumstances, with different "actors" letting go of the hatred that provoked me to act may have sealed an unfortunate ending.

Anger, all by itself, may not be enough in some cases, because anger has its limits and once the angry reaction wears off, what then?

Extreme situations, when life becomes almost impossible, such as when a person or a group of people is literally smothering under oppressive circumstances; hatred could serve as indispensable, motivating people to do what is necessary to either save their lives or escape the crushing conditions they are experiencing.

An African American writer about prisoners:

‘It’s easy for folks who have enough to eat, homes, land, work, to preach about forgiveness. But is it fair to preach it to people living in hellholes, jobless, starving? Are they to forgive the fat well-fed millions who voted for their starvation? Who voted for war? Who voted for prisons? Who voted for a people’s repression? Who wish, in their heart of hearts, that those people had never been born? Should the starving forgive the repression to come, the genocide to come?’

Lance Morrow, on September 12, 2001 wrote a piece in Time Magazine called The Case for Rage and Retribution making the case for the purpose of hatred.

“A day cannot live in infamy without the nourishment of rage. Let's have rage. What's needed is a unified, unifying, Pearl Harbor sort of purple American fury'a ruthless indignation that doesn't leak away in a week or two, wandering off into Prozac-induced forgetfulness or into the next media sensation.
[...]
Let America explore the rich reciprocal possibilities of the fatwa. A policy of focused brutality does not come easily to a self-conscious, self-indulgent, contradictory, diverse, humane nation with a short attention span. America needs to relearn a lost discipline, self-confident relentlessness' and to relearn why human nature has equipped us all with a weapon (abhorred in decent peacetime societies) called hatred.”

Justified or not, Mr. Morrow certainly has a way with words. Hatred is the most dangerous weapon  in our emotional arsenal and must be handled with extreme care. We need to monitor our hatred constantly, asking ourselves if it is serving any purpose, and if so, we must be extremely cautious that any action it may provoke helps the situation at hand and does not exacerbate the problem.

As much as I admire Mr. Morrow's literary composition, I don't agree with his call for hatred after 9/11, as I believe hatred serves no purpose in a nation as powerful as ours. Hatred should be reserved for the weak and powerless, the underdog, as sometimes its their only hope, and even then, hatred can spiral out of control and drain the humanity of the souls it consumes.

If everyone followed Hector's example and transformed the powerful emotion of hatred, once it served its purpose, to the even more powerful emotion of forgiveness, as he did, hatred could assume its proper place in the complex intricately woven tapestry of emotion that makes us who we are.

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The Business of Us All.

Emmett Till in 1952, three years before he was brutally murdered:

"Two months ago I had a nice apartment in Chicago. I had a good job. I had a son. When something happened to the Negroes in the South I said, `That's their business, not mine.' Now I know how wrong. I was. The murder of my son has shown me that what happens to any of us, anywhere in the world, had better be the business of us all." -- Mamie Bradley, mother of Emmett Till

Mamie Bradley, mother of Emmett Till (pictured above) - the 14-year-old black Chicago boy visiting Mississippi in 1955, who was kidnapped from his uncle's home in the town of Money and killed after he whistled at a white woman - insisted on leaving her murdered son's casket open for the funeral. Emmett was beaten so badly that his brain had to be removed prior to his burial...so badly that his mother only recognized the mutilated corpse of her son by the shape of his ears. She was quoted as saying, "I wanted the world to see what they did to my baby.”

"The Hurricane Katrina disaster, like the Emmett Till affair, revealed a vulnerable and destitute segment of the nation's citizenry that conservatives not only refused to see but had spent the better part of the past two decades demonizing." -- Henry Giroux, author of Stormy Weather: Katrina and the Politics of Disposability.

Emmett Till's casket donated to the Smithsonian

Plans are in the works to exhibit the casket that once held the body of lynching victim Emmett Till at the Smithsonian Institution's ...

Hurricane Katrina and the Aftermath of Apathy

PBS: The Murder of Emmett Till

The Shocking Story of Approved Killing in Mississippi

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President Obama: Visual Aid for Hate Groups?

Prior to the November election, in October of 2008, I remember listening to radio (NPR) show that was discussing the new, more "evolved" "progressive" white supremacists, who planned to vote for President-elect Obama. Of course, my first reaction was disbelief until I heard the reason why they - Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, the National Socialist Movement, the Creativity Movement, the National Alliance, American White Knights, and some skinhead groups - planned on voting for Obama, and it made perfect sense.

You see, according to Ben Klassen, founder of the Creativity Movement, and author of several books espousing the white supremacist philosophy that states "the natural destiny of the White Race is to rule the world and thus fulfill the purpose of the universe", an African American president fits right into their overall vision, as he will provide the spark for the "all-out war with the 'mud races' (people of color, homosexuals, Jews, most Christians, especially Catholics, and White "race traitors").

Candidacy Fits Into Ideology

Part of the problem is that Obama is playing into the neo-Nazi and white supremacist narrative, said Brian Levin, who studies hate and extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.

What the groups were saying — "Jews and blacks coming out of the urban areas are going to take over this white nation of ours" — has occurred, he said.

You only have to look to the Internet to see how white supremacist leaders such as David Duke are using Obama to rally their troops. Duke has called Obama a "visual aid for hate groups."

He says an Obama presidency would provide indisputable proof that whites have lost control of America.

"This is a cultural and racial battlefront," said Levin. "Barack Obama is symbol No. 1 of the worst the future has to offer."

While Obama may be an easy focus of discussion for haters, he hasn't unified them. In fact, in many ways, he has managed to divide the movement.

Catalyst For A Race War

Tim Zaal, a former white supremacist from Los Angeles, says the split Obama has created is almost generational — between old-school Ku Klux Klan types who are viscerally against a black man running for president and a new wave of haters.

"You have the more — kind-of strange to say it — progressive white attitude: The worse it gets, the better," said Zaal.

Zaal says the new generation is particularly focused on what they see as the coming race war. They have been trying to spark one for years. Some think, even hope, that an Obama presidency will do just that.

Zaal says some will actually vote for Obama to send the country into a tailspin. "The faster this country falls, the sooner white revolution will arise," he said.

That mindset is all over the neo-Nazi Web sites. On one, a man with the pen name "LastOfMyKind" wrote, "Could it be that the nomination of Obama finally sparks a sense of unity in white voters? I would propose that this threat of black rule may very well be the thing that finally scares some sense back into complacent whites."

This is what worries the police and the FBI.

Fast forward to April 7, 2009 and the Department of Homeland Security is reporting that "right-wing extremists in the United States are gaining new recruits by exploiting fears about the economy and the election of the first black U.S. president."

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America's Hate Groups Increase 48% Since 2000

The number of hate groups operating in America increased last year to 888, a rise of 48% since 2000.

Listed below are some of the hate groups scattered through America including , , and the all-encompassing .

Anti Gay: - Organizations that go beyond mere disagreement with homosexuality by subjecting gays and lesbians to campaigns of personal vilification.

The emergence of Watchmen on the Walls, an international and incredibly virulent anti-gay organization with strong ties to Latvia has gained a foothold in the United States among Russian-speaking Slavic immigrants on the West Coast. Ken Hutcherson, the alleged Bush White House "Special Envoy for Adoptions, Family Values, Religious Freedom, and Medical Relief" hosted this fundamentalist hate organization.

High on the Watchmen agenda during their March Latvia visit was expressing their anger over a $7,179 donation the U.S. embassy in Latvia made to Mozaika, a Latvian gay rights organization. The four-figure sum is pocket lint in terms of U.S. foreign aid. (According to tax records, nonprofit organizations run by Lively donated a similar amount to anti-gay groups over the last two years.) But the Watchmen didn't just protest the small donation. They did so in the name of the Bush Administration. Hutcherson claimed that the White House had appointed him a "special envoy" for "family values."

"I came to you representing the White House. In my country, people will know how Latvia responded to anti-Christian statements," Hutcherson told the Latvian parliament. "We need to stand for righteousness not only morally, but also physically and financially. It's a great battle for righteousness and no one can stop it. I promise to stand with you."

Hutcherson later said that he was designated a White House envoy during a February 2007 meeting between himself, Ledyaev and Jay Hein, the head of the White House's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Hutcherson claims he has a videotape of this meeting, but so far has refused to release it.

In a written statement, White House spokesperson Alyssa J. McLenning refuted Hutcherson's claim: "The White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives did not give Hutcherson the title, 'Special Envoy for Adoptions, Family Values, Religious Freedom, and Medical Relief.' The White House did not give Hutcherson any other titles and did not coordinate with Hutcherson on his recent trip to Latvia." Impersonating a diplomat is a felony, but the White House apparently is not pursuing the matter.

Racist Music Groups, White power music labels that record, publish and distribute racist music in a variety of genres.

Anti Immigrant - Generally attack immigrants as individuals, rather than merely disagreeing with immigration policy. Some have close ties to white supremacist ideas, groups and individuals.

The hate group list's only campus outfit, the Michigan State University chapter of Young Americans for Freedom, which was added in 2006 after the group sponsored a "Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day" contest and put out a manifesto calling for white, male control of the MSU student government, continued to promote hate by hosting a series of lectures by extremists such as Nick Griffin. Griffin is a Holocaust denier and the head of the whites-only British National Party, that drew skinheads and other white supremacists to the MSU campus.

General hate groups -


And then of course we have the already established hate groups such as the Neo-Nazis, Racist Skinheads and we can't forget the good old Ku Klux Klan.

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It's OK to Hate Gay People?

It should come as no surprise that Mr. Bush and the Republican Party think it's OK to hate this group of Americans. Mr. Bush and friends are making sure "gay-bashing" remain alive and well in this here country.

Hate crime legislation exists to protect marginalized Americans from violence because members of minority groups are more likely to be targeted for this type of crime. But when our own government has no qualms about "bashing" this group (LGBT) of Americans, especially when Bush, Cheney and Rove want to focus our attention elsewhere, there is little to no chance that they will support a bill that condemns their strategy for success.

There is no question that people in the LGBT community have always been a target of hate crime and continue to be an "acceptable" scapegoat of haters today; this group, in particular, need the extra protection this law provides.

"Hate crimes" affect a group or community of people rather than an individual, therefore having greater impact than a crime committed against an one person. The victim of a hate crime acts as a symbol of the community that person represents and sends a clear message that any person associated with that group could be next. It's an act of terrorism and we know how strongly the President feels about terrorism, so why does the President object to legislation that will aid in curtailing terrorism against this group of Americans? Maybe because "gay bashing" is what enabled this administration to "accomplish" all that they have "accomplished".

"A White House spokesman has reiterated that President Bush will veto Congressional efforts to extend federal hate crimes legislation to cover gender identity and sexual orientation."

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Do Straights Really Hate the Gays?

Some do...there is no question about that, but certainly not all heterosexual people hate homosexual people. Larry Kramer holds a slightly more pessimistic view than I, but he is also much older than I and has seen, heard and experienced so much more than I ever will.

Having said that, Larry Kramer deserves much credit for all that he has contributed toward making sure gay people have the same rights as straight people. His letter is well worth the read.

DEAR STRAIGHT PEOPLE,

Why do you hate gay people so much?

Gays are hated. Prove me wrong. Your top general just called us immoral. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, is in charge of an estimated 65,000 gay and lesbian troops, some fighting for our country in Iraq. A right-wing political commentator, Ann Coulter, gets away with calling a straight presidential candidate a faggot. Even Garrison Keillor, of all people, is making really tacky jokes about gay parents in his column. This, I guess, does not qualify as hate except that it is so distasteful and dumb, often a first step on the way to hate. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama tried to duck the questions that Pace's bigotry raised, confirming what gay people know: that there is not one candidate running for public office anywhere who dares to come right out, unequivocally, and say decent, supportive things about us.

Gays should not vote for any of them. There is not a candidate or major public figure who would not sell gays down the river. We have seen this time after time, even from supposedly progressive politicians such as President Clinton with his "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military and his support of the hideous Defense of Marriage Act. Of course, it's possible that being shunned by gays will make politicians more popular, but at least we will have our self-respect. To vote for them is to collude with them in their utter disdain for us.

Don't any of you wonder why heterosexuals treat gays so brutally year after year after year, as your people take away our manhood, our womanhood, our personhood? Why, even as we die you don't leave us alone. What we can leave our surviving lovers is taxed far more punitively than what you leave your (legal) surviving spouses. Why do you do this? My lover will be unable to afford to live in the house we have made for each other over our lifetime together. This does not happen to you. Taxation without representation is what led to the Revolutionary War. Gay people have paid all the taxes you have. But you have equality, and we don't.

And there's no sign that this situation will change anytime soon. President Bush will leave a legacy of hate for us that will take many decades to cleanse. He has packed virtually every court and every civil service position in the land with people who don't like us. So, even with the most tolerant of new presidents, gays will be unable to break free from this yoke of hate. Courts rule against gays with hateful regularity. And of course the Supreme Court is not going to give us our equality, and in the end, it is from the Supreme Court that such equality must come. If all of this is not hate, I do not know what hate is.

Our feeble gay movement confines most of its demands to marriage. But political candidates are not talking about — and we are not demanding that they talk about — equality. My lover and I don't want to get married just yet, but we sure want to be equal.

You must know that gays get beaten up all the time, all over the world. If someone beats you up because of who you are — your race or ethnic origin — that is considered a hate crime. But in most states, gays are not included in hate crime measures, and Congress has refused to include us in a federal act.

Homosexuality is a punishable crime in a zillion countries, as is any activism on behalf of it. Punishable means prison. Punishable means death. The U.S. government refused our requests that it protest after gay teenagers were hanged in Iran, but it protests many other foreign cruelties. Who cares if a faggot dies? Parts of the Episcopal Church in the U.S. are joining with the Nigerian archbishop, who believes gays should be put in prison. Episcopalians! Whoever thought we'd have to worry about Episcopalians?

Well, whoever thought we'd have to worry about Florida? A young gay man was just killed in Florida because of his sexual orientation. I get reports of gays slain in our country every week. Few of them make news. Fewer are prosecuted. Do you consider it acceptable that 20,000 Christian youths make an annual pilgrimage to San Francisco to pray for gay souls? This is not free speech. This is another version of hate. It is all one world of gay-hate. It always was.

Gays do not realize that the more we become visible, the more we come out of the closet, the more we are hated. Don't those of you straights who claim not to hate us have a responsibility to denounce the hate? Why is it socially acceptable to joke about "girlie men" or to discriminate against us legally with "constitutional" amendments banning gay marriage? Because we cannot marry, we can pass on only a fraction of our estates, we do not have equal parenting rights and we cannot live with a foreigner we love who does not have government permission to stay in this country. These are the equal protections that the Bill of Rights proclaims for all?

Why do you hate us so much that you will not permit us to legally love? I am almost 72, and I have been hated all my life, and I don't see much change coming.

I think your hate is evil.

What do we do to you that is so awful? Why do you feel compelled to come after us with such frightful energy? Does this somehow make you feel safer and legitimate? What possible harm comes to you if we marry, or are taxed just like you, or are protected from assault by laws that say it is morally wrong to assault people out of hatred? The reasons always offered are religious ones, but certainly they are not based on the love all religions proclaim.

And even if your objections to gays are religious, why do you have to legislate them so hatefully? Make no mistake: Forbidding gay people to love or marry is based on hate, pure and simple.

You may say you don't hate us, but the people you vote for do, so what's the difference? Our own country's democratic process declares us to be unequal. Which means, in a democracy, that our enemy is you. You treat us like crumbs. You hate us. And sadly, we let you.

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