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Bitter Fruit by Guy Spiro “Where hatred is sown, bitter fruit is the harvest.” I don’t know if that’s a famous quote or not but it should be. A couple of days ago I heard on my car radio a conservative lamenting the hatred that liberals seem to have for President Bush. This person seemed to somehow not remember the burning vitriol that the right poured out on President Clinton during his eight years in office. Indeed the right continues to lash that particular deceased equine to this day. But then one recalls the glee with which the left pursued the Iran-Contra affair, and the right played up Carter’s Killer Rabbit. Then there was the buffoonery leading to Nixon’s downfall and who can say how far back it goes? This tit-for-tat, you went after our guy so now we go after yours with ever greater venom, has to end. All of this country’s enemies, real and imagined, under-estimated and over-exaggerated do not come close to being as dangerous and damaging as the ongoing culture war right here at home. When some on the right say that those on the left are not real Americans, all of us are diminished. When someone on the left puts a bumper sticker on their car that says “Hatred is Not a Family Value,” but hates the right, we are all made less secure. The radicals on both sides of any dispute have a tendency to use anything and everything at hand to make a point. Responsibility goes out the window in direct proportion to the level of hatred indulged in. As emotions rise and attacks escalate, political discourse descends into little more than chimpish dung-flinging. It is once again time for some growing up. We are not alone in this mistake. As long as hatred is taught on either side of Middle-East conflict, it will be very difficult to attain any kind of lasting peace. Those who are actively teaching hatred anywhere in the world sow the seeds of destruction that, in some cases may take generations to heal. Here at home however, we tend to pride ourselves on our civility, however thin the reality of it may be. Wherever you fall on the political and social spectrum, it is time to recognize that we are all brothers and sisters. We may not agree, but then we don’t have to. There is room for diversity. We all, no matter what our affiliations, live on the same planet, breath the same air, and share the same mass consciousness. Whenever the poison of hatred is spewed out into the mass mind, we are all tainted by it. It is possible to vigorously disagree without hating and vilifying. It is time to make a better choice. |
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