Just recently it seems a lot of ordinary people have gotten quite angry. In India, the brutal rape and, let’s call it what it was and say murder, of a young innocent student has caused a backlash of ordinary people demanding the government finally deal with the issue of rape. In the USA, anonymous is making sure that everyone is aware of the repeated rape of a high school girl by the town’s popular high school football team is kept in the news and they are not allowing the town to conveniently sweep the event under the carpet. In Pakistan, a teenage girl shot by the Taliban for defending women’s right to an education has caused a similar outcry. This is good but it’s not enough.
We live in a world where good things are often hijacked by misguided people. Islam is a peaceful and beautiful religion but it has been hijacked for the purpose of hatred, violence and control. High school and college sports should be about teamwork and competitive spirit and for fun. Yet they have been all too often hijacked by those who would rather win at any cost and who reward their athletes with drugs and turn a blind eye to indiscretions and worse. It seems to be the human condition to take something intrinsically good and darken it. To take something that should provide solace to the soul and food for the spirit and sell it down the river in the name of control.
How much hatred is there in this world? One only has to read of an Italian soccer team walking away from a game because of senseless racist chants or better still, read the comments on and CNN story on its website to realize that hatred is endemic. An Argentine President whose country is a shambles and whose people are unhappy last week tries to deflect attention using the Falklands. She tries to inflame people with hatred in order to control and distract them. It’s easy to do. It must be. Hitler did it. Anyone can do it. Money, power, control, greed, sex and corruption are rife.
Yet I see some tentative green shoots early this year that maybe people have had enough. It’s time to take back from what I term the haters. It’s time to break down the system of controls. It’s time to call out hatred and control. There is only one way to do that though and it’s not through violence or creating an alternative set of controls. It’s through tolerance and love. It’s through learning to love yourself and reflecting that love outwards into the external reality that is our/your world. People are different; let’s celebrate those differences but let us not allow others to control us through fear or through forms of bribery. Be yourselves. Tolerate and enjoy our differences but let us call out hatred. Shine the light of love on it and see it wither and run.
In short, the advice offered encourages caution, purdah and awareness. Advice as a mother would give to her daughter. Was this hatred or love? I choose LOVE!