Monday, September 04, 2017

Can't We Just All Get Along?

  An open letter to American Nazis, White Supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan, anti-semites, racists, misogynists, and all you other losers devoid of compassion and respect for minority groups. I don't hate you, but I hate what you represent. And I hate that you are passing YOUR hate for other people to your kids or grandkids. 

   I need your help. I need you to explain to me why you are willing to hate other people. Because I don't get it. Why are you passing that hate on to your kids? I don't even understand why YOU hate people. Why you think your "white privilege" is something to be proud of. So for sure I can't understand why you're doing this to your child.
   Children learn what they live. And if they live hate, they learn to hate. How do you explain to a child that they should HATE, not just dislike, HATE, another human being for ANY reason? How? How do you have a conversation with a 3-yr-old, or your kid who is 6, or 9, that teaches them they SHOULD hate people who are different? When everybody else they know, the kids they go to school with, their friends, their soccer or hockey or tee ball teammates, are being taught by their parents they SHOULD NOT hate anybody? 3-, 6-, and 9-yr-olds should be hating things, not people: Brussels sprouts and homework and going to bed early on school nights. That's what kids should "hate". They shouldn't be faced with the struggle of applying your ideology when deciding if they should like or hate a classmate or teammate or playground pal because of some "difference" between them that they shouldn't even recognize or have to deal with.
   You are supposed to teach your child GOOD values. Hate is not even in the realm of good values. Hate is the opposite of good values. Yet people DO teach their young children, including, yes, toddlers, that they should hate "others". You do it at home. You do it in the car. You do it when you taker her to your meetings. You do it when she goes with you to a rally. Or a march. Not only is that abhorrent, aberrant, and appalling behavior, you are setting your child up for failure. Because those you are teaching him to hate? Those who aren't able-bodied, those who don't have white skin, those who go to a different church, those whose ancestors aren't all Europeans, those who have developmental disabilities or mental illness, those who aren't straight, or who are being raised by two moms or two dads? Those who don't hate others, who were raised and TAUGHT not to hate others? Those kids will be part of the majority of the people in this country. Those are the people your kid is going to interact with every day of his or her life. Every day. 
   From day care to pre-K to kindergarten, through elementary, middle, and high school, your child will be expected to get along with the other children. He will have to work together on a school project with a Jewish kid and a black kid and a gay kid and a kid who's on the autism spectrum. It won't go well for him or her if he was raised to hate every kid in his group. It won't help later on when he's told the other employees he'll be working with on a group presentation are all people he was taught to hate. 
   So, please explain to me, help me understand, why you think it's a GOOD thing to HATE other people? And why you choose to teach an innocent child the concept of hate. Please explain how this will help your child in any way. Please explain how that will help him succeed in life. Because, isn't that kinda your job? To teach your child good morals, ethics, citizenship? Isn't it kinda your job to help your child be prepared to navigate the world  on his own once he reaches adulthood? 
   You don't have to teach your child to be best friends with every kid he knows. Just teach them to treat others the way he wants to be treated. Teach her, by example, to respect others, to not bully or otherwise discriminate. Let him learn how to make friends with kids he likes. Let him choose for himself. Then respect his choices. Unless, maybe you just want your child to go through her childhood and adolescence without friends except those she hangs out with at your rallies. Because if your kid brings that hate with him when he goes to day care and pre-K and kindergarten and elementary, middle, and high schools, he's going to be a loner since he will have alienated pretty much everyone in his sphere. This is the kind of life that ends after your kid becomes a mass shooter at school or at work and kills himself to avoid arrest, or refuses to obey police orders, forcing them to shoot him. Or her. If that's not the way you want your child's life to end, it's pretty simple. Teach him to NOT hate. 
   Teach your child to be open about others. Do it by example. Leave those white supremacists groups. Change your attitude. Learn, yourself, to stop hating and start ACCEPTING people for who or what they are, whatever makes them different than you. If you can't do it for yourself, do it for your kid. Don't teach him to hate. If you do continue on the path you have chosen, be prepared for the consequences. Be prepared to tell your kid the real reason the other kids want nothing to do with him. Explain to your five year old child why he's the only kid in the class who wasn't invited to Mohammed's birthday party. Be prepared to tell your daughter why she wasn't invited to the sleep-over at Mindy's house. And when your kid gets to high school, be prepared to explain to him WHY you chose to TEACH him to HATE all those kids. Because he WILL start questioning you. He'll be questioning himself. Adolescence is hard enough to go through, but it's made easier when you have friends going through the same thing. Imagine how much worse it would be if you're a loner and not by choice. Not really. At least not because of any conscious choice he made by himself; for himself. He'll suffer because of a choice you made even before he was born. 
   On second thought, forget explaining it to me. Explain it to your kid.