We Have Been Told Who to Hate

If the year were 1763, you would have been told to hate the French, because we were in the middle of the French and Indian War. A few years later, because of the War of Independence, the French were our friends and you were told to hate the English. Later, we were told to hate Native Americans (Indians). It seems they, the Native Americans had the audacity to be living on land that the settlers decided they wanted.
Then, we ran out of countries to hate so, we decided to have a civil war. It was easy. Depending on which side of the Mason Dixon Line you lived on, you just hated the other side. It didn’t matter if your own mother lived on the other side, she was the enemy, and you had to kill the enemy.
Then, in 1917, we were told to hate Germans, because we were in the “War to End All Wars.” Ha! Twenty-five years later, we decided to hate the Germans again. This time we threw the Japanese in to make it more interesting. Oh, by the way we liked the English, French, Russians, and sometimes the Italians. Now, that the war was over we thought we could rest for a while. Wrong, now we hate the Koreans, at least the ones that live north of the 38th Parallel.
From 1951 to 1953, I was in high school and I had never heard of Korea. It’s hard to hate somebody you didn’t know even existed. What’s the deal? North and South Koreans look the same. You could end up hating the wrong one. Well, we got through that war and since we were pretty good at meddling into other peoples’ Civil Wars, we decided to try it again. This time, we go to Vietnam. We are now supposed to hate somebody named “Charlie.”
Just about now, we begin to think there is no one left to hate, but we decide it’s Russia’s turn. Then we began something called the Cold War. We spend billions of dollars making weapons to wipe each other off the face of the earth. Well, somehow we got through that one without killing anyone and turned our attention to the Middle East. Now here comes Iraq, with the third largest army in the world. Yes indeed, we hate those guys, go in kick their butt, kill a lot of Iraqi, and get out relatively clean. Later, junior comes along and says, “You call that a war dad, I’ll show you a real war,” and we are still there.
In my opinion, the next twenty years we will go full cycle and hate the French again, wait a minute; we already hate the French. Who are we supposed to hate now? We are supposed to hate HATRED.

Today’s Exercise: Do one act of kindness towards someone you would not normally look at.
Today’s Affirmation: I am loved, because I love.
Points to Ponder: War is an excuse for fear. Fear is an illusion. War is stupid.