Does Hate Feed Tragedy?
by Bob Henderson
Because you’re reading this, I suspect you are emotional about loving your country. I know I am. So for the next few minutes, let’s focus on several recent events in the news and try to recall the emotions we felt when we first saw or heard of them.
Two weeks ago yesterday, the Martin Luther King Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C. In his remarks, President Obama declared that his problems “are nothing compared with what King faced.”
He described “the thwack of the policeman’s club and the power of the fire hose” that King and others endured. He said he hoped his daughters would take from the dedication the lesson that, if one is determined and certain his or her cause is just, great things can be accomplished.
Then Michelle and Barack Obama linked arms with Joe and Jill Biden and sang, along with all the other thousands present, “We Shall Overcome.” Nearby, an open mic picked up the President’s voice. He clearly had sung the song many, many times before.
As I watched these four leaders of the Democratic Party, all dedicated to extending the American ideals of fairness and equality, I was overcome with pride and gratitude, and tears came into my eyes.
That same Sunday morning, a videotape was shown on “Meet the Press” of Herman Cain describing to an audience the fence he will build if elected president: 20 feet high, covered with barbed wire, and electrified. On the Mexican side of the U.S. border, Cain said, a sign will read, “This can kill you” in two languages.
That Sunday morning, however, Cain disavowed his taped remarks as “a joke.” America needs a sense of humor, he said.
What emotions do these stories invoke in you? Are you laughing?
Most Republicans I know would never find killing anyone an appropriate subject for a joke. Yet they have allowed their party to be captured by such hateful images as this and others.
Of a Republican audience cheering Cain when he said 14 million unemployed Americans should “blame yourself” because they do not have jobs.
An audience cheering Rick Perry of Texas for a record number of executions.
And an audience at a Republican debate booing a gay American soldier.
All these events have occurred during this year’s presidential debates.
When I read of a God that expands and grows as the universe unfolds, the metaphorical image that comes to my mind is of a high mountain lake that is ever so slightly changed by each drop that flows into it.
Some of the drops are loving and compassionate. They cause the lake to become almost imperceptibly clearer. Others are angry and hateful, and the lake becomes just slightly more polluted.
Do we dwell together in such a lake, our lives intertwined with our God for all eternity?
Many leading theologians believe that each of us must accept some responsibility for events in which we play no obvious part. I am thinking now of the teen-agers bullied until they commit suicide. Do we speak out to let these young people know of the love and support we feel for them, or do we remain silent?
Do we have compassion for those struggling just to feed their families? Are our sympathies for the hundreds of thousands who have lost their homes due to Wall Street greed, or do we dismiss them as “envious”?
I do not believe God punishes or rewards us for our day-to-day actions. I do not believe that earthquakes occur, or that hurricanes are more severe, because Americans welcome human diversity.
But I do accept the possibility that the benevolent nature even of our God, certainly of our world, may be affected by emotions we each contribute to the creation we all share.
 |
My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom Book’s Webpage: http://amzn.to/dt72c7 – Twitter: http://twitter.com/egbertowillies |
