Phil Gramm’s Nation of Whiners.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there were 888 known hate groups extant in this country in 2007, their most recent data. The FBI’s 2007 hate crime statistics show 7,624 reported hate crimes incidents involving 9,006 separate offenses. (They estimate a total of 191,000 -- no, that's not a mistake -- reported and unreported hate crimes in 2005) Hate crimes against both illegal immigrants and people of alternative lifestyles are on the rise. In fact, five out of nine reported hate crime incidents involved sexual orientation.
Anger inevitably evolves into intolerance. Where did we lose the concept of the “loyal opposition?”
When did we forget that democracy and liberty, by definition, means that all ideas are acceptable as long as they do no harm?
Ah!
Therein lies the rub!
Somewhere and somehow we seem to have gotten the idea that every disagreement is a struggle for survival. That if the opposing group, whether it is political or social or religious or ideological, is able to realize their goals – even a single one – it will wreak destruction and damnation upon us.
I remember working on a political campaign for a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives. During one meeting we were going over strategy and the young campaign manager was talking about how we had to crush our opponent and take no prisoners.
I had been listening to this for a while with growing concern. I knew the candidate quite well and knew that she was a person who, while strong in her convictions and very committed to seeing them through, was not a vindictive or offensive person. Still, here was our campaign manager talking in terms of political (not physical) violence.
At some point, I spoke up and said, “You know, this isn’t war. It’s a campaign.”
The young man turned on me and, with no small degree of disbelief in his voice said, “No – this is war. They are the enemy and we have to completely destroy them!”
I left the meeting that night troubled; not so much that he had said that, but that I had found myself thinking of ways that that destruction could have been realized. I truly liked my candidate and I believed in her platform as strongly as she did. But I also had a clearly defined moral and ethical code that was telling me that this was wrong.
The following day, I resigned from the campaign, although to her credit, she relieved that young man from any position of authority and conducted her campaign along more tolerant strategies.
My point in this story is to illustrate that we all get angry and we are all susceptible to what I call the Anger/Intolerance Syndrome. We get frustrated because we – each of us – believe that we are intelligent and knowledgeable and that we know the way we need to proceed. When others fail to see this, we assume that they are simply ignorant, stupid or, to one degree or another, evil. They are Haters of Right and Lovers of Self Service.
And yet, what does our hatred of them make us?
I’m not suggesting that we meekly turn the other cheek to our opponents. I’ve never believed that did anything but get the receiver bruised and battered. I beleive there are things worth fighting and dying for and I am in no way a pacifist.
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