Moving Beyond The Hate

What an uphill climb we have in this country. Every four years we elect a new president and the hate begins. The "out" party begins immediately by denigrating the incoming president and standing boldly in their opposition to whatever he does. The incoming president makes bold proclamations about being, "the president of the United States" and bringing America together and the hate spirals up until we have exchanges like this recorded from comments on an NBCnews article where Obama said that he believes that he would have won if he had run again:

"Obama replaced Peanut as the worst president ever. He will be the greatest former president ever. Jimmy boy knows it and that's why he slammed Barry before he leaves office."

"Yes, Donald can hire brilliant people,to make him look good, but we all know he is an idiot...I love how he claimed how smart he was for avoiding paying taxes when it was his team of tax lawyers who did that for him. I doubt the Donald could even fill out a 1040EZ."

Of course there were much worse exchanges than those above, but I really do not want to give them any more air time for their vitriol.

So how do we move beyond the hate that seems to engulf our society today? I believe the beginning and the ending lies within those who choose to live in a state of virtue and character.

Of course these are strange words to many of us. They are words that speak to who I am on the inside and not what has happened in our society (on the outside). In other words, "I" am the problem. If I hate President Obama or if I hate President-elect Trump, I am the problem. Character does not allow me to hate someone because they disagree with me. Character and virtue require respect and a sense of dignity in disapproval. That is not what we see displayed today. At one rally a protester burned the American flag and said f*** the flag. It is true that you have the right to do that in America, but it is not virtuous and that is whats missing from those who only want to fight for their rights. We all have the right to be virtuous. We should fight for that.

That doesn't mean that we can not disagree with others. It only means that we can not wish evil upon each other and expect that we will go unscathed from the evil that befalls them. We are connected.

Personally, I've never voted for any of the people in the photo above and while I have much negative to say about each of them, I can also find positives for each of them. That is what we need to learn to do. Let's find the best in each other and deal with the rest. Perhaps maybe then, we can move beyond the hate...and that we need to do.