Drowning out the hate

Shed some light on the subject
June 21, 2017
Rain slacks in area; Cindy moves closer to shore
June 21, 2017
Shed some light on the subject
June 21, 2017
Rain slacks in area; Cindy moves closer to shore
June 21, 2017

Word came early Wednesday morning that yet again, somewhere in this troubled nation, a deranged individual with a gun had made sad and tragic history.

The closest this particular brand of madness had come in recent years was at a Lafayette movie theater, where the victims included friends of people I know personally. More recently, just a year ago, the terror of a tragic night in Orlando tore at my heart, as it did all people of good will. The recipe is most always the same. A few years back it was in Charleston, S.C., in a church, a church of all places, where a man-child who had prayed with his victims whipped out a pistol and ended their lives. Take a madman. Add a firearm. Mix generously. Add a political or religious agenda.

This time one of the victims was a congressman. Not just any congressman, but my congressman, Steve Scalise. He is a charismatic and friendly guy whom I have spoken with at business luncheons. I have written about him and quoted him in stories. I have shaken his hand. My writings have not always been complimentary, and we have had points of disagreement. But never would I have dreamed, could I have dreamed, that he would be the victim of a mass shooter. Other people were shot as well, including Steve’s bodyguards, a congressional aide and a former aide who is now a lobbyist.


The guy with the gun was James Hodgkinson and he was from Illinois. He was not a budding white supremacist like Dylann Roof. This guy came from the opposite side of the political spectrum, a liberal Democrat who had supported Bernie Sanders for president. He despised President Donald Trump and conservative ideals. And now he is dead.

But the disease that fueled his rampage is not dead. It is very much alive. And it will show itself again, whether in Europe or Asia or right here. The disease is hate.

Merriam Webster defines hate as “intense hostility and aversion usually deriving from fear, anger, or sense of injury.” The second definition is “extreme dislike or disgust; antipathy, loathing.”


Hate is not owned by any one philosophy or politic. It is not owned by any one people. It is a condition that we allow ourselves to lapse into through intolerance or ignorance. In our nation’s history it has evinced itself, certainly, through mass paintings with a broad and deadly brush of specific peoples. It is easily directed toward groups of because when we see people as part of a group we need not bother to see them as individuals and recognize their humanity. You might hate Jews even though you have coffee with Mrs. Goldstein. For her you can make an exception. You might hate blacks but you don’t hate Mr. Smith who does the lawn. This type of exceptionalism only makes the hate live with greater ease.

In our nation and right here in our own communities we harbor way too much hate, because we too easily classify individuals as members of groups. My neighbor is pro-choice in the matter of abortion. I assume he is therefore opposed to gun rights, and probably against prayer in schools. I can believe this even though all of it might not be true. It happens when I identify another as a liberal, and then offer my own definition of what that means. It happens when I identify someone as a conservative, and then offer my own definition of what that means.

It happens when I cannot accept that just because he or she disagrees with my view of the world, they are somehow deficient.


We must stop thinking in extremes, and believing that the Trump presidency portends the death of a nation. We should not, cannot blame all that is wrong in our society on the scant eight years Barack Obama spent in office.

We must identify each other as humans, all still members of the same family, who may disagree on many points, even as we may agree on some. This erodes the hate and does not allow it to flourish and it stunts the growth of the madness in the minds of people like James Hodginkson. It makes them easier to spot because they no longer sound just like the rest of us, but like the madmen they are. •