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Poison
by Guy Spiro

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As this is being written, during the week of May 20th, we are waiting to see if an expected Al-Qaeda attack against the United States takes place. We have Vice President Cheney warning us that it is not if, but when, and we have no idea what magnitude of attack may happen or where it may occur. Perhaps the attack will be thwarted as the millennium attacks were. Or we may be hit by something worse than 9/11 that we cannot even imagine. As I have written extensively, the astrological indications are that something will happen around the full Moon on the 26th of May. On the 25th we have the last exact Saturn opposed Pluto, which is the major astrological energy involved in the 9/11 events and the current phase of conflict. By the time you are reading this, a great deal of what will occur has probably already happened. I pray that it has been minimal.

I've been taken to task by several readers for taking an Us and Them tone in some of what I have written. I understand these gentle folks' concern and I perhaps could have been more careful with my language. But, and I think it's important for all of us to understand, the United States along with all of the Western developed world is seen as the enemy and is hated deeply by those who would destroy us. You and me, our children and all that we hold dear are hated. The simple freedoms that we enjoy and our entire way of life, the good and the regrettable, is hated and must be destroyed by those who have chosen to be our enemy. Whether we like it and accept it or not, we are an Us who is hated by a Them.

The greatest danger to ourselves and to the world is the potential for us to hate them back. The problem is hate itself. To protect ourselves and all that is good about our way of life, we have no choice but to defend ourselves and fight back. But we must do what we must do without hate and with the intention of doing good. Those who are acting in our name have put too much emphasis on a military solution and not enough on the humanitarian needs of the people out of which those who choose to be our erstwhile enemies arise. Equally important is that we, those who believe in such things, have dropped the ball as well. Where are the global peace prayer and meditation efforts that I was sure would be organized?

The events that will unfold in the two weeks between my writing this and your reading it may occur in the U.S. and may occur in other parts of the world. A good bet is that there will be more major trouble between the Israelis and Palestinians. Here, as in Northern Ireland and other places, is one area where the bitter fruit of hatred can easily be seen. While no one can deny that the Palestinians' plight is desperate, the all too human response to hate has pushed the region into an impending, almost inevitable, inferno. When generations are raised in hatred, what can the result be other than escalating violence that will ultimately consume all who are involved? Peace can never be born of hate.

We have our own version of this conflict here at home. The left and right in American politics is engaged in a culture war, and the hate involved in it is a cancer that is eating away at the country. The right's hatred of the Clinton administration, and by extension the Gore candidacy, was palpable. We now have the left seizing the opportunity to flog the Bush administration over warnings on 9/11 that neither side would have handled any differently. This tit-for-tat attacking of the other side (that some trace back to the hounding of Nixon from office) has to be faced down and stopped. The escalating hatred in this culture war can only lead to pain and suffering. Do we not see this being played out all over the world?

Diversity is a good thing. It is okay if you believe something different than I. We can even be on opposite sides of issues that one or both of us believe to be of paramount importance, but we do not have to hate each other. To hate is to close the option of peace. We must love our enemies, at home and abroad. We must take whatever steps are necessary to prevent those who would harm us from succeeding in their efforts ... but not with hate in our hearts. Hate is a poison that destroys all that is good in all that fall prey to it.

To hate or to love is a choice that each of us as an individual has to make. Events over the next few weeks are likely to raise emotions to a fever pitch.

What will you choose?