Changes

"I see no changes. All I see is racist faces.Misplaced hate makes disgrace to races we under.I wonder what it takes to make this one better place...let's erase the wasted.Take the evil out the people, they'll be acting right.'Cause both black and white are smokin' crack tonight.And only time we chill is when we kill each other.It takes skill to be real, time to heal each other

         

Misplaced Hate

Why do we hate? What is the driving force that causes us to clench our fists in rage at another human being or worse, an entire group of human beings?

My earliest memory of experiencing hate was in elementary school when Jesse Wilson tripped me, pointed and laughed at me in front of my peers at recess. I was angry, I despised Jesse and wanted nothing more than to show him up and to make him feel the ridicule that he had made me feel. The next day after recess was over and we were walking back to class I kicked Jesse in the stomach at the top of the stairs for all the other kids to see so that they could be witnesses to Jesse's demise. I don't remember how this act made me feel. I don't remember feeling prideful or accomplished, I just remember hating Jesse because he had belittled me. Fast forward about a year later and I was leading a group of bullies, Jesse being one of them and we picked on two kids named Lee Jay and Preston because they were different from us. They were shy kids that we classified as nerds who didn't talk like us or act like us. Writing this right now makes me sick thinking about it.

Based on the lessons from my childhood and from what I have observed in my 30 years of life I believe that there are two main reasons why we Hate

1) We don't understand one another and we fear what is different from us

I didn't understand Lee Jay or Preston, I just thought that they were weird like the other kids did, so I picked on them. Had I bothered to step out of my comfort zone and had not worried about what the other kids thought, I could've learned Lee Jay and Preston's stories. I would have found out that they were human beings with hopes, dreams, and fears just like me. I would've learned that they weren't so DIFFERENT after all.

"Neither despise or oppose what thou dost not understand"- William Penn

2) We don't forgive

Forgiveness is a beautiful thing. It is singlehandedly the hardest thing that anyone will ever have to do. We are so consumed by what is inside of us and caught up in who has hurt us in our lives that we often live the majority of our lives with a veil over our eyes. All of us at one point in our lives have been hurt by someone and we have allowed that hurt to linger for far too long. For some it was an ex girlfriend that did them wrong, others a spouse, for some a coworker, a lifelong friend, a parent, etc. We all carry with us a wound, or wounds that we allow to shape who we are. When you are able to identify those wounds and truly forgive those that inflicted them, then and only then are you able to move forward and love again with a fresh set of eyes to the world. A world that is devoid of love.

So what now? Where do we go from here? My suggestion is that today you identify the wounds that have been inflicted on you and CHOOSE TO FORGIVE. Forgiveness is a choice. It is a hard choice, but it is the first step to healing a broken man in a broken world. The next thing that you can do is learn to understand what is different from you. I am not at all saying that you have to conform to a set of beliefs or morals that you do not abide by, but you must have empathy for and understanding of your fellow man so that you can effectively share with and communicate with him. If you can't do this then your concern will come across as promoting your agenda and will be fairly or not judged as unacceptance or hate.

"It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes.
Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live
and let's change the way we treat each other.
You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to dowhat we gotta do, to survive."

-Tupac Amaru Shakur