A Mind-Numbing Act of Senseless Violence
a sermon preached by the Rev. Dr. Tim W. Jensen
at the Second Congregational Meeting House
on Nantucket Island Sunday September 16, 2001
***
Like just about everyone else here in this room today, I imagine, my thoughts this past week have pretty much been directed toward the events of last Tuesday. And I’ve been particularly concerned about what I was going to say about it here this morning; not because I didn’t know what I wanted to say, but rather because I wasn’t really certain what more I COULD say that hadn’t already been said far better over and over again. When confronted by such a mind-numbing act of senseless violence, such a vicious and malicious pre-meditated, well-orchestrated, cold-blooded act of deliberate mass-murder, it is difficult to know WHAT to say, much less how to respond in a rational and sensible manner.
It’s been particularly difficult for me because, as you may have already noticed in the few short weeks I’ve been here, I am the sort of person who likes to deal with adversity by making light of it, by finding the humor in any given situation, the comic irony which inevitably reveals itself whenever we human beings try to take ourselves too seriously. But frankly, I just haven’t seen that much to laugh about this past week. Mostly, I’ve just been feeling kind of sad: sad about events as they have transpired since last Tuesday, and in some ways even sadder about the events I expect will transpire in the weeks and months ahead.
My first reaction (which I gather was fairly typical) to the news that a hijacked jet airliner had crashed into the World Trade Center in Manhattan was one of shock and disbelief. As the full scope of the conspiracy and the magnitude of its impact gradually unfolded: four hijacked airliners, dozens of well-trained terrorists, probably years of planning, thousands killed or injured, this feeling of disbelief gradually gave way to one of helplessness, even bordering at times on despair, as well as concern for the safety of people that I knew, and compassion for the families of those victims who were not so fortunate as the members of my immediate family, yet in whose place I might easily have found myself if circumstances had only been slightly different.
As it turned out, my younger brother (who works in the financial district) was just getting off of his train in Grand Central Station when the first airliner hit; he and his wife spent the day stuck in the city, and were back home in Greenwich that same evening. My wife and daughter were supposed to have flown to Paris on Tuesday for a two-week vacation in France, which they had been planning for months; needless to say, those planes never took off: Margaret went back in to her office that same afternoon, somehow convinced that by being at her desk she was in some way working to keep the world safe from further terrorism, while Stephenie came here to Nantucket to spend some time with me (which frankly I’m delighted about).
At some point during the week, I simply had to turn the television off, except for brief little “check-ins” at the end of the day. Instead I listened to Public Radio as I was getting up in the morning (as I generally do every morning anyway), and checked-out headlines and op-ed pieces from the national print media over the Internet. What upset me was not so much the extent of the tragedy...or perhaps I should say catastrophe, since the tragedy here is something entirely different altogether...but rather the hateful, jingoistic, blustering militarism I was hearing on some of the more conservative national news networks.
I mean, I had thought that Newt Gingrich was out of my life forever; I really didn’t need to see him trotted out on the Fox News Network to talk about how this is an act of war against the United States, our generation’s equivalent of Pearl Harbor, and deserves the same style of intense mobilization of our national will and resources toward the complete and unconditional destruction of our enemies. I’ve got my own Ph.D. in history; I’ve read Thucydides, and I know where that slippery slope leads: from the destruction of the culpable, along with those who give shelter and comfort to them, to those who are sympathetic to their views, who pass out candy upon hearing news of our suffering, and finally those who have merely been critical of the way that we have treated these others...and suddenly there is no more middle ground, no more voice of reason, no hope of reconciliation, or mutual understanding, or justice...only escalating levels of violence and fanaticism, in which the adversaries become virtually indistinguishable from one another in their mutual, amoral culpability.
It may not be funny, but it sure is ironic.
I think I would have laughed, had I actually heard it, at the interview Jerry Falwell gave Pat Robertson on the 700 Club last Thursday. Apparently, according to Falwell, the real reason this terrorist attack took place is that God is so angry at liberals that he has “lifted the curtain of protection” from our nation and “allowed the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve.” Here’s a little more of the actual quotation (try to imagine that I am Jerry Falwell now): “I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, the People for the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say, ‘You helped this happen.’ “
Personally, I’m not much into finger-pointing these days, but I think that if I were, I would probably be waving my digit in a somewhat different direction. I think that I would want to point out, for example, that Osama bin Laden and his cronies in the Talilban received their initial lessons in terrorism, as well as ample supplies of arms and ammunition, from the CIA during the Reagan administration, back when we were intent on terrorizing the Soviet Union, and routinely referred to these folks as “freedom fighters.”
I think that I would want to point out that approximately half a million children have died in Iraq since the Gulf War as a result of our on-going embargo and intermittent bombing of that country, and that over the course of the last eight months, the current administration has done just about everything it can imagine to alienate and isolate our nation from the rest of the world -- ignoring or abrogating treaties which had been negotiated by their predecessors, antagonizing our enemies and our allies alike, pursuing policies which, as best I can tell, have been intended to further the fortunes of a privileged few at the expense of everyone else on this planet.
Nor am I quite so cynical as to suggest that, with an approval rating now approaching 90% despite an economic picture which a week ago appeared more grim than at any time since his father’s administration, the President might well have welcomed having a convenient whipping-boy like Osama bin Laden to kick around, regardless of whether or not it turns out that he actually was the one behind these terrible attacks. These thoughts are frankly too horrible to imagine; and besides, Dubya simply seemed to me too confused and uncertain of himself last Tuesday to have been deliberately exploiting our national misfortune for his own political advantage.
So instead I prefer to think about the courageous way that Americans have historically risen to the challenge when confronted with a crisis. I prefer to think about the hundreds of heroic police officers and firefighters who risked their lives, and in many cases lost their lives, attempting to save the lives of others. I prefer to think about the passengers of United Airlines flight 93, who apparently rose up and attacked their hijackers in order to prevent that airplane from also becoming yet another flying weapon. And I think often about all the people who have gathered in churches and other public places this past week to sing and light candles and pray, not for revenge or victory, but for peace and justice.
A little earlier this morning I alluded to the difference between a catastrophe and a tragedy. A catastrophe is a calamity, a disaster, an event which inflicts widespread destruction and suffering. But tragedy contains an additional element: the fact that the cause of that calamity originates in the arrogant pride or hubris of an otherwise heroic figure, which blinds him or her to a fatal flaw within their character, which then becomes the source of their undoing. The same quality which makes the hero great also makes them vulnerable, and their destruction becomes tragic because it might have so easily been avoided, had the hero simply exercised a little more humility.
Think for a moment about the tragedies of Oedipus, or Othello. A calamity becomes tragic because a hero’s greatness, their capacity for bold, courageous, decisive action, unleashes a chain of events beyond their control, which eventually overtakes them and robs them of their own freedom to decide their destiny. Their fate becomes sealed, because their pride has in some way outraged and offended the Gods, who are ultimately responsible for preserving justice, and order, and equity in the Universe.
The events of last Tuesday were without question calamitous. But they will become tragic only if we allow ourselves, in our arrogant pride, to set out blindly upon a course of action that will eventually transform us into something we can not abide. Don’t misunderstand me on this point. It is essential that we commit the resources of this nation to bringing the perpetrators of this crime to justice. But, in doing so, it is equally essential that we do not allow ourselves to become criminals in our own right. I really can’t say it any more plainly than that. There is too much blood on our hands already; we are not always the heroic defenders of freedom and justice that we like to see ourselves as being. So long as we persist in remaining blind to our own faults, we risk unleashing a tragic calamity of truly catastrophic proportion.
Simply because we have been wronged does not make us right. Simply because we are powerful enough to hurt those whom we perceive to be our enemies does not in any sense justify our doing so. If our actions are to be regarded as just and proper, we must seek out the cooperation of the international community, behave consistently with standards of due process, and truly become the champions of freedom, justice, and human rights that we so often claim to be.
And above all, as I suggested on Friday, we must believe and trust the words of America’s first (and in my mind still the best) Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, and remember that we most truly succeed in destroying our enemies when we are able to make them our friends.
Here on Nantucket it has been easy, psychologically at least, to get away from time to time from the oppressive press of the news from the mainland, to turn off the TV, to walk the dog, to spend time with my daughter shopping, and drinking coffee, and pretending like we are really at a sidewalk cafe in Paris. Between the Thursday night inter-faith vigil at Jetties Beach (which was organized by my new friends Natalie and Gillian, whom I am happy to see sitting here in church today), last Friday’s noontime service here in this church, and now our regular weekly meeting for worship here on Sunday morning, I also had a chance to officiate (together with a Rabbi from the Cape) at a lovely interfaith wedding at one of the local beachfront restaurants. There were a few empty seats at the reception -- thankfully due only to disrupted travel plans rather than anything more serious -- but the mood was one of joy and celebration, as it should be at a wedding, which represents a new beginning full of hope and promise for all the good things which life has to offer to those who dare to love one another with all their hearts. And I lift this up as a beacon of hope, and a reminder of all of the good things which life still has to offer even in the shadows of grief and mourning.
Our own Unitarian Universalist tradition teaches both the “Inherent Worth and Dignity of Every Person,” as well as “Respect for the Interdependent Web of all existence, of which we are a part.” When we lose sight of the fact that, despite the callous and brutal disregard for innocent life demonstrated this past week by those who hate us with a religious fervor, they too are Persons with Inherent Worth and Dignity, whose lives are inextricably bound to ours in an interdependent network of shared humanity, we risk allowing the power of hatred to dehumanize our own existence, which frankly is a fate far worse than anything which terrorists might do to threaten us.
Pray with me now, won’t you?
Creator of the Universe, who loves us
in the same way that a mother loves her children.
May our gratitude for your many gifts to us always be in our hearts.
OUR FATHER, WHO ART IN HEAVEN
HALLOWED BE THY NAME
May your wise and just and merciful leadership guide our lives
As they guide the whole of your creation
THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE
ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN
Let there be enough for us to eat
And be patient with us when we make mistakes,
as we have learned to be accepting of the shortcomings of others.
GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD
AND FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES
AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US
Help us to avoid doing wrong.
Inspire us always to seek the good.
AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION
BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL
For your wisdom and mercy and justice
are powerful and glorious.
In this moment, and for all eternity.
FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM,
AND THE POWER, AND THE GLORY
FOR EVER AND EVER. AMEN
***
First Reading: Luke 6: 27-36
But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyhone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes way your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
Second Reading: Martin Luther King Jr., “Loving Your Enemies.”
A Sermon preached at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
in Montgomary, Alabama on November 17, 1957.
There’s another reason why you should love your enemies, and that is because hate distorts the personality of the hater. We usually think of what hate does for the individual hated or the individuals hated or the groups hated. But it is even more tragic, it is even more ruinous and injurious to the individual who hates. You just begin hating somebody, and you will begin to do irrational things. You can’t see straight when you hate. You can’t walk straight when you hate. You can’t stand upright. Your vision is distorted. There is nothing more tragic than to see an individual whose heart is filled with hate. He comes to the point that he becomes a pathological case. For the person who hates, you can stand up and see a person and that person can be beautiful, and you will call them ugly. For the person who hates, the beautiful becomes ugly and the ugly becomes beautiful. For the person who hates, the good becomes bad and the bad becomes good. For the person who hates, the true becomes false and the false becomes true. That’s what hate does. You can’t see right. The symbol of objectivity is lost. Hate destroys the very structure of the personality of the hater.
at the Second Congregational Meeting House
on Nantucket Island Sunday September 16, 2001
***
Like just about everyone else here in this room today, I imagine, my thoughts this past week have pretty much been directed toward the events of last Tuesday. And I’ve been particularly concerned about what I was going to say about it here this morning; not because I didn’t know what I wanted to say, but rather because I wasn’t really certain what more I COULD say that hadn’t already been said far better over and over again. When confronted by such a mind-numbing act of senseless violence, such a vicious and malicious pre-meditated, well-orchestrated, cold-blooded act of deliberate mass-murder, it is difficult to know WHAT to say, much less how to respond in a rational and sensible manner.
It’s been particularly difficult for me because, as you may have already noticed in the few short weeks I’ve been here, I am the sort of person who likes to deal with adversity by making light of it, by finding the humor in any given situation, the comic irony which inevitably reveals itself whenever we human beings try to take ourselves too seriously. But frankly, I just haven’t seen that much to laugh about this past week. Mostly, I’ve just been feeling kind of sad: sad about events as they have transpired since last Tuesday, and in some ways even sadder about the events I expect will transpire in the weeks and months ahead.
My first reaction (which I gather was fairly typical) to the news that a hijacked jet airliner had crashed into the World Trade Center in Manhattan was one of shock and disbelief. As the full scope of the conspiracy and the magnitude of its impact gradually unfolded: four hijacked airliners, dozens of well-trained terrorists, probably years of planning, thousands killed or injured, this feeling of disbelief gradually gave way to one of helplessness, even bordering at times on despair, as well as concern for the safety of people that I knew, and compassion for the families of those victims who were not so fortunate as the members of my immediate family, yet in whose place I might easily have found myself if circumstances had only been slightly different.
As it turned out, my younger brother (who works in the financial district) was just getting off of his train in Grand Central Station when the first airliner hit; he and his wife spent the day stuck in the city, and were back home in Greenwich that same evening. My wife and daughter were supposed to have flown to Paris on Tuesday for a two-week vacation in France, which they had been planning for months; needless to say, those planes never took off: Margaret went back in to her office that same afternoon, somehow convinced that by being at her desk she was in some way working to keep the world safe from further terrorism, while Stephenie came here to Nantucket to spend some time with me (which frankly I’m delighted about).
At some point during the week, I simply had to turn the television off, except for brief little “check-ins” at the end of the day. Instead I listened to Public Radio as I was getting up in the morning (as I generally do every morning anyway), and checked-out headlines and op-ed pieces from the national print media over the Internet. What upset me was not so much the extent of the tragedy...or perhaps I should say catastrophe, since the tragedy here is something entirely different altogether...but rather the hateful, jingoistic, blustering militarism I was hearing on some of the more conservative national news networks.
I mean, I had thought that Newt Gingrich was out of my life forever; I really didn’t need to see him trotted out on the Fox News Network to talk about how this is an act of war against the United States, our generation’s equivalent of Pearl Harbor, and deserves the same style of intense mobilization of our national will and resources toward the complete and unconditional destruction of our enemies. I’ve got my own Ph.D. in history; I’ve read Thucydides, and I know where that slippery slope leads: from the destruction of the culpable, along with those who give shelter and comfort to them, to those who are sympathetic to their views, who pass out candy upon hearing news of our suffering, and finally those who have merely been critical of the way that we have treated these others...and suddenly there is no more middle ground, no more voice of reason, no hope of reconciliation, or mutual understanding, or justice...only escalating levels of violence and fanaticism, in which the adversaries become virtually indistinguishable from one another in their mutual, amoral culpability.
It may not be funny, but it sure is ironic.
I think I would have laughed, had I actually heard it, at the interview Jerry Falwell gave Pat Robertson on the 700 Club last Thursday. Apparently, according to Falwell, the real reason this terrorist attack took place is that God is so angry at liberals that he has “lifted the curtain of protection” from our nation and “allowed the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve.” Here’s a little more of the actual quotation (try to imagine that I am Jerry Falwell now): “I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, the People for the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say, ‘You helped this happen.’ “
Personally, I’m not much into finger-pointing these days, but I think that if I were, I would probably be waving my digit in a somewhat different direction. I think that I would want to point out, for example, that Osama bin Laden and his cronies in the Talilban received their initial lessons in terrorism, as well as ample supplies of arms and ammunition, from the CIA during the Reagan administration, back when we were intent on terrorizing the Soviet Union, and routinely referred to these folks as “freedom fighters.”
I think that I would want to point out that approximately half a million children have died in Iraq since the Gulf War as a result of our on-going embargo and intermittent bombing of that country, and that over the course of the last eight months, the current administration has done just about everything it can imagine to alienate and isolate our nation from the rest of the world -- ignoring or abrogating treaties which had been negotiated by their predecessors, antagonizing our enemies and our allies alike, pursuing policies which, as best I can tell, have been intended to further the fortunes of a privileged few at the expense of everyone else on this planet.
Nor am I quite so cynical as to suggest that, with an approval rating now approaching 90% despite an economic picture which a week ago appeared more grim than at any time since his father’s administration, the President might well have welcomed having a convenient whipping-boy like Osama bin Laden to kick around, regardless of whether or not it turns out that he actually was the one behind these terrible attacks. These thoughts are frankly too horrible to imagine; and besides, Dubya simply seemed to me too confused and uncertain of himself last Tuesday to have been deliberately exploiting our national misfortune for his own political advantage.
So instead I prefer to think about the courageous way that Americans have historically risen to the challenge when confronted with a crisis. I prefer to think about the hundreds of heroic police officers and firefighters who risked their lives, and in many cases lost their lives, attempting to save the lives of others. I prefer to think about the passengers of United Airlines flight 93, who apparently rose up and attacked their hijackers in order to prevent that airplane from also becoming yet another flying weapon. And I think often about all the people who have gathered in churches and other public places this past week to sing and light candles and pray, not for revenge or victory, but for peace and justice.
A little earlier this morning I alluded to the difference between a catastrophe and a tragedy. A catastrophe is a calamity, a disaster, an event which inflicts widespread destruction and suffering. But tragedy contains an additional element: the fact that the cause of that calamity originates in the arrogant pride or hubris of an otherwise heroic figure, which blinds him or her to a fatal flaw within their character, which then becomes the source of their undoing. The same quality which makes the hero great also makes them vulnerable, and their destruction becomes tragic because it might have so easily been avoided, had the hero simply exercised a little more humility.
Think for a moment about the tragedies of Oedipus, or Othello. A calamity becomes tragic because a hero’s greatness, their capacity for bold, courageous, decisive action, unleashes a chain of events beyond their control, which eventually overtakes them and robs them of their own freedom to decide their destiny. Their fate becomes sealed, because their pride has in some way outraged and offended the Gods, who are ultimately responsible for preserving justice, and order, and equity in the Universe.
The events of last Tuesday were without question calamitous. But they will become tragic only if we allow ourselves, in our arrogant pride, to set out blindly upon a course of action that will eventually transform us into something we can not abide. Don’t misunderstand me on this point. It is essential that we commit the resources of this nation to bringing the perpetrators of this crime to justice. But, in doing so, it is equally essential that we do not allow ourselves to become criminals in our own right. I really can’t say it any more plainly than that. There is too much blood on our hands already; we are not always the heroic defenders of freedom and justice that we like to see ourselves as being. So long as we persist in remaining blind to our own faults, we risk unleashing a tragic calamity of truly catastrophic proportion.
Simply because we have been wronged does not make us right. Simply because we are powerful enough to hurt those whom we perceive to be our enemies does not in any sense justify our doing so. If our actions are to be regarded as just and proper, we must seek out the cooperation of the international community, behave consistently with standards of due process, and truly become the champions of freedom, justice, and human rights that we so often claim to be.
And above all, as I suggested on Friday, we must believe and trust the words of America’s first (and in my mind still the best) Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, and remember that we most truly succeed in destroying our enemies when we are able to make them our friends.
Here on Nantucket it has been easy, psychologically at least, to get away from time to time from the oppressive press of the news from the mainland, to turn off the TV, to walk the dog, to spend time with my daughter shopping, and drinking coffee, and pretending like we are really at a sidewalk cafe in Paris. Between the Thursday night inter-faith vigil at Jetties Beach (which was organized by my new friends Natalie and Gillian, whom I am happy to see sitting here in church today), last Friday’s noontime service here in this church, and now our regular weekly meeting for worship here on Sunday morning, I also had a chance to officiate (together with a Rabbi from the Cape) at a lovely interfaith wedding at one of the local beachfront restaurants. There were a few empty seats at the reception -- thankfully due only to disrupted travel plans rather than anything more serious -- but the mood was one of joy and celebration, as it should be at a wedding, which represents a new beginning full of hope and promise for all the good things which life has to offer to those who dare to love one another with all their hearts. And I lift this up as a beacon of hope, and a reminder of all of the good things which life still has to offer even in the shadows of grief and mourning.
Our own Unitarian Universalist tradition teaches both the “Inherent Worth and Dignity of Every Person,” as well as “Respect for the Interdependent Web of all existence, of which we are a part.” When we lose sight of the fact that, despite the callous and brutal disregard for innocent life demonstrated this past week by those who hate us with a religious fervor, they too are Persons with Inherent Worth and Dignity, whose lives are inextricably bound to ours in an interdependent network of shared humanity, we risk allowing the power of hatred to dehumanize our own existence, which frankly is a fate far worse than anything which terrorists might do to threaten us.
Pray with me now, won’t you?
Creator of the Universe, who loves us
in the same way that a mother loves her children.
May our gratitude for your many gifts to us always be in our hearts.
OUR FATHER, WHO ART IN HEAVEN
HALLOWED BE THY NAME
May your wise and just and merciful leadership guide our lives
As they guide the whole of your creation
THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE
ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN
Let there be enough for us to eat
And be patient with us when we make mistakes,
as we have learned to be accepting of the shortcomings of others.
GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD
AND FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES
AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US
Help us to avoid doing wrong.
Inspire us always to seek the good.
AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION
BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL
For your wisdom and mercy and justice
are powerful and glorious.
In this moment, and for all eternity.
FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM,
AND THE POWER, AND THE GLORY
FOR EVER AND EVER. AMEN
***
First Reading: Luke 6: 27-36
But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyhone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes way your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
Second Reading: Martin Luther King Jr., “Loving Your Enemies.”
A Sermon preached at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
in Montgomary, Alabama on November 17, 1957.
There’s another reason why you should love your enemies, and that is because hate distorts the personality of the hater. We usually think of what hate does for the individual hated or the individuals hated or the groups hated. But it is even more tragic, it is even more ruinous and injurious to the individual who hates. You just begin hating somebody, and you will begin to do irrational things. You can’t see straight when you hate. You can’t walk straight when you hate. You can’t stand upright. Your vision is distorted. There is nothing more tragic than to see an individual whose heart is filled with hate. He comes to the point that he becomes a pathological case. For the person who hates, you can stand up and see a person and that person can be beautiful, and you will call them ugly. For the person who hates, the beautiful becomes ugly and the ugly becomes beautiful. For the person who hates, the good becomes bad and the bad becomes good. For the person who hates, the true becomes false and the false becomes true. That’s what hate does. You can’t see right. The symbol of objectivity is lost. Hate destroys the very structure of the personality of the hater.
posted by The Eclectic Cleric at 7:27 AM
