HATE

     Hate. The very sound of the word is harsh and hurtful. It is said with an explosive expelling of breath and one can wonder how deep does the hate go or the hurt go. Those who hate must deal with a wounded soul, a soul with a black hole, a sinkhole which grows larger and larger. People think that hate will go away if ignored. It doesn't. It only grows more, takes on more power and bolder steps until we have the explosion of it, sometimes figuratively and at other times literally.
     Albert Einstein said, "The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything." For how long has the world and the nations of it stood by and done nothing, or worse, even attacked the victims as causing their own troubles. It was America's fault that 9/11 happened - or so we are told. In a university right here in the USA we are told that any remembrance of 9/11 may not take place on campus as it might offend people of color. Why? Because some of those who committed this horrendous act of terrorism are of darker skin? Well, some are not so what difference does this make? None, yet this ignorance and ignorant behavior continues, much to our detriment.
     For so long the world has stood by and watched the violence and terrorism taking place in Israel and indeed all over the world but as much of it was directed against Jews, the world once again stood still and silent. The Argentinian bombing, the torture of Ilan Halimi, the school shootings, the attacks here at Jewish centers, along with those careless and silly Israelis who so thoughtlessly fell onto the knives of the innocent Palestinians, those who so foolishly tried to protect their families - all their fault - or so the world behaved.
     I saw a sign on the Net yesterday which read this way: Paris 11/13    New York 9/11   Israel 24/7. How true, so sadly true. And why? Why? Because of hate, baseless, nasty, faulty and falsely based hate, incitement and lies and the hate goes on and now, well, now it has enveloped the world.
     And what does the world do in the midst of this hatred, these explosions? Why they label tomatoes and dates rather than labeling terrorists and the truth. They repeat old canards of prejudice and as for here in the USA, the campuses of the universities, the very places where new ideas, bold attempts to try them, to be exposed to the world, to listen to speakers who visit the campuses, here in these very bastions of learning or as they once were, as Alan Dershowitz stated the other day, "The fog of Fascism has descended upon them."
     No more are kids willing to hear and listen and think and weigh and measure. Now they want to have their ideas validated by the excising of all other ideas. There is a sudden spurt in emphasis on only certain groups and others are left alone or ignored as unimportant or perhaps worthy of being hated. So Black Lives Matter. Yes, they do, but so do the lives of women, of children, of Jews, of LGBTQ, of Native Americans, of disabled, of immigrants and the list can go on ad infinitum but unfortunately not on the campuses. What grows on the campuses today are voices of hate, even self hatred. What we have is a modern day version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as suddenly those nasty Zionists are controlling all.
     Right in the midst of New York City, one of the most "Jewish" cities of the world outside of Israel, we have self hating Jews, stupid young Jews who should know better, those belonging to JSP - Jewish Students for Palestine - shouting and screaming at Hunter, at CUNY, that  "Zionist"  administrators are keeping the cost of tuition high. Huh? What are they blathering on about? This is where hate takes us. This is where I have a serious talk with my kids about the future and my fears and I find out to my horror that my kids, my sweet children who all work in professions where the goal is to help people, these kids are worried too, they who usually tell me I am too pessimistic. Well, now they say perhaps I am realistic. I hate to hear that. It was very hard to hear that.

     I could go on and on for unfortunately examples of hate driven action are not rare. The very Internet alone here is a curse for it allows the dispersal of hate, awful statements and pictures, publicity and propaganda, to flourish and the threats of cyber attacks are not to be ignored either.

     So what to do? Who the hell knows. But we can speak out against hate. We can demand that our representatives in the state capitals and in Washington fight against hate, pass the right laws and stop this nonsensical partisan warfare that is making us weak. America needs to be a leader of the world again, to take a bold stance, a determined stance and not one that is wishy - washy and comes with pursed lips as if that would solve the issue. We need to tell our children at college to grow up and stop trying to muzzle free speech and thought. Stop being afraid of civil rights for when one is - that leads to that fog of Fascism that Dershowitz referred to.

     Right now I am in my own fog of despair, anger, and yes, hate. I admit it. I hate people who say that the word of G-d is driving them to atrocities. I hate those who think that murdering and maiming is the path of G-d. And yes, I hate those who hate me. Is that wrong? Perhaps, and it does not feel good, but I am human but how much better a world it would be if we did not have to worry about others killing us and instead worked together to build a better world, not the world of labelling fruit but labelling hate and those who purvey it, a world where violence was alien and looked upon with disgust, a world where a head of state did not voice anti Semitic remarks, a world where children can grow and explore. Do I recall that from my childhood? Yes, I believe I do and while I was living in the world of a child, today's children are exposed to it all. How sad for us.