I Have Now Learned to Hate
I used to think it was a virtue of sorts, my inability to truly hate anyone. My closest brush with hatred was historical in nature, if I can put it that way. I hated the Nazis, hated the clergy that tortured and maimed during the Spanish Inquisition, hated the KKK members who lynched our black brothers and sisters, hated those who used religion to persecute the innocent.
But that hatred was always aimed at those long gone, which rendered it as something vague and almost non-descript, an emotion that had no impact on the living, something that had no real consequence in the world I now inhabit.
Hatred is a strong emotion, often more detrimental to those who feel it than those who deserve to be hated. It is a feeling that should be weighed and measured and – so I have always felt – should be a state of emotion not easily or unadvisedly entered into. It is something that should take into account all mitigating circumstances, something that should give everyone the benefit of every possible doubt and every opportunity to demonstrate that they have some redeeming value that leads me to believe that – as Anne Frank once wrote during the worst of times – “man is truly good at heart”.
Thanks to Republicans, I have now learned to hate. I hate those who are trying to turn my beloved country into something I no longer recognize, those who have turned citizen against citizen for political gain, those who have now gone so far as to imprison innocent children in order to placate a “pResident” whose self-serving madness is beyond obvious.
I have heard the cries of traumatized children – and I hate those who have caused their unspeakable fear. I have seen parents emotionally tortured by the realization that they have no idea where their children are, or how they are being treated. I hate every Republican who has enabled this crime through their support or their cowardly silence. I hate every Republican who has lied, misled, and excused the lying idiot who has distanced us from our like-minded allies while praising our known adverasaries.
I hate every member of the political party that has ignored the plight of children in order to excuse, defend and support a man who has colluded with our country’s enemies in order to BE in a position to decree such inhumane cruelty.
I hate every so-called Christian who has used the Bible as a justification for tearing children away from their parents, and every hypocrite who has twisted the teachings of Christ into something abhorrent in order to excuse their own corruption.
I hate every Republican who has chosen to “look the other way” while babies and toddlers are wrenched from their parents for the sole purpose of using their suffering as a means to an end – that end being catering to the whims of a madman.
Yes, I have now learned to hate. I have learned to hate with a vehemence I once thought myself incapable of. I have learned to hate my fellow citizens, my countrymen, the very people I was once willing to forgive for their transgressions in the hope that they were momentarily misled, but would eventually come to their senses.
I have learned to hate those who deny that what is happening is actually happening. I have learned to hate those who not only accept this abomination of tearing children away from their parents, but who actually applaud that abomination as righteous, just, and necessary.
We are all familiar with the tactics that led to six million people being exterminated by the Third Reich, and most of us have been appalled that those tactics were embraced by people who had once been seen as normal human beings incapable of such depravity. We are now facing the same tactics being used by Republicans to justify equally depraved policies – and we are watching their adherents praise those tactics as being justified.
I am now a “hater” – one of those citizens who truly hates those I once saw as being merely misled, misguided by their loyalty to a political party that once represented an alternative view of how our country could best achieve its mutually-held goals.
The Republican party has now shown its true face – a party of people who are more than willing to condemn children to unspeakable emotional trauma in order to publicly fellate a lying narcissist who will stop at nothing to serve his own self-serving purposes.
I have now learned how to hate – and thanks to Republicans, I have been taught to do so by people who are masters of the craft. I have learned that giving any Republican the benefit of the doubt by assuming they are moral human beings is as foolhardy as it is pointless.
I have learned to hate. I am not proud of it – but I now realize that there is no other option. I can only hope that my hatred spurs my resolve to see the Republican party annihilated, and wiped from the face of the earth. It deserves no less, and its destruction is the only hope of our survival as the nation we once were, and will hopefully be again.
= new reply since forum marked as read
I never thought I would say that myself, but of late that is a common statement I make to those around me 
we're going to be ok, but, it's going to get rocky for awhile. Seems we've reached an impasse w these people. Keep your chin up NG. 
& Welcome to the Democratic Underground Brawndo!
Thank you for your insightful post!
Hatred makes people stupid. Think, say, and do stupid stuff. Hatred puts us on their team. And we are better than that. And that being said, we are all experiencing strong emotions of revulsion and anger at those tapes of kids crying. Anger is poison too. I'm a Buddhist, so hatred is not an emotion that I care to nurture. I do however experience anger sometimes. Anger is a negative emotion that I have struggled with all my life. Anger has controlled me a lot more than I have controlled it. Mostly I experience anger at the absolute stupidity, ignorance, and close-mindedness of Republicans, especially the low degenerate cruelty and hatefulness of Trump and his Trumpsters. I frequently feel that they have insulted my intelligence with their brazenly stupid obvious lies. But I have learned that while I sometimes experience anger, "I" am not angry. Who, where, what is this "I" anyway?
As a Buddhist I know that all emotions don't really exist. They have no mass. Can't put them on a scale and weigh them. They only SEEM to be real solid things. Emotions are merely energy that we can use in pursuit of some enlighted purpose. Anger is a very strong emotion, very direct , precise, and focused at some object. So how to harness and use the energy of anger for the benefit of all sentient beings? How do we right a wrong without being contaminated with anger and hatred? The answer is something that we must each discover for ourselves. The Boddhisattva path inspires me to work for the benefit of all sentient beings. To liberate all sentient beings from suffering. No one gets left behind. Not even the degenerate Trump and his dreadful Trumpsters. The deplorables also have Buddha nature, although it's buried under an avalanche of darkness, hatred, fear, greed and ignorance.
I'm just an old lady with a body that doesn't work so great anymore. So there's not a lot that I can do. I sure can't march any more. But what I can do is to help people calm down, as we deal with this monstrosity. We are far more effective at achieving an enlightened outcome, when we are calm, clear-minded, and focused, than when we are freaking out and consumed with anger and hatred. Be a ray of sunshine.
I think it's time to renew my meditation practices that I learned early in addiction recovery many years ago.
Hopefully, this horrible round of mischief tRump and his gang are forcing on America is temporary but will teach us all to stop being complacent and to frequently renew our spiritual foundations. If not for our sake, then for the sake of those around us.
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