HATE CRIMES

I dedicate this blog to Amanda.

And to Jemma, Kirsten, & all who rage against the hatred…

‘My religion is kindness’, says the Dali Lama.

How many times have I tried to remember this?

Take it to heart, and practice it? 

And how many times have I failed? 

I seem to be built to HATE hatred.

I cannot stand it. 

I seem to be a BIGOT myself, in that I have a deep seated hatred for BIGOTS.

Is this not a contradiction? 

Where can this go?

Hating hatred?

And I also seem to be waging a perpetual war against STUPIDITY.

OPERATION ENDURING COMMON SENSE.

Where on earth can such seeming duality- contradictory forces- possibly go?

Will it not implode?

Or is there another way?

I wanted to see.

I have had time to review these matters this week.

Perhaps it is the intersection of a number of affairs; the Priest I was molested by as a child comes up for sentencing this week, & this will- hopefully put to rest- a lifetime of struggle.

An open sore, finally able to heal.

But what of the righteous indignation that the abused flesh seems heir to...?

that driving force within is that wants to 'put things right'?

This hunger, this yen for justice, in a world that is becoming increasingly unjust?

For this week, I came face to face with the gun toting red neck fundamentalist religious right in America. 

I had seen it in movies- but never seen any direct evidence of it. 

Frankly...I found it hard to believe anything so STUPID could possibly exist.

But it does.

Fascism and bigotry, discrimination against others on the basis of nationality, race, colour, creed, expression, accent,  is alive and well.

And living right here.

Am I wrong because I cannot bring myself to forgive it?

Because I find it impossible to ignore the crypto-fascist tendencies of the far right in America?

I was on the verge of saying 'we don't have anything quite like it in Australia'...

But of course, we do.

I refer to the hate crimes and incendiary verbiage of the Aboriginal Memes Group, inciting hatred and violence against the Indigenous Community.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/333438993413349/#!/pages/Aboriginal-memes/159797174156990

It claims to be a comedy site.

But what it is, according to mail received behind the scenes from the perpetrators...is a considered, concerted effort to wage war against the indigenous community.

I- like my friends in a special effort to shut this poison down...

https://www.facebook.com/groups/333438993413349/#!/groups/333438993413349/

...simply cannot seem to ignore them or forgive them in the same way the Dalai seems to have forgiven the Chinese Army for hijacking his country, slaughtering his people, and driving him into exile.

We are all built differently…

but I simply cannot ignore the hate mongering war machine.

In all it's forms.

And, unlike the Chinese who make no bones about their oppressive agenda…

These movements are insidious.

Just as Aboriginal Memes claims to be comedy...

Just as the American War machine in it's concerted effort to spread it's economic, cultural imperial hegemony around the globe claims it does so in the name of 'freedom loving people everywhere...

Democracy...

And we are all complicit in it's march of progress...

It is all part of the same lie.

The same insidious hate agenda.

And it seems to speak to a popular view.

An all too familiar popular tendency.

A few things made sense to me this week.

I have been watching a lot of documentaries this week on US foreign policy over the years.

Trying to understand what it is about the American people that allowed an illegal action against Iraq to go ahead.  Has allowed so many illegal, immoral and hateful crimes to be carried out in its name in so many countries.

And this week, I found out first hand…it is the popular view.

The vast majority of the country seem to concur.

The enthusiasm & lust for warfare, animosity  and hatred against people even slightly different…is palpable.

As an Australian person- a foreigner with a different way of perceiving the world- I saw this anger and hatred first hand.

And it chilled me to the core.

And it caused me to despair.

Made me feel hopeless.

I would love to ignore it, go off and meditate…

But I cannot rest when I know there is injustice in the world.

Which means I will never rest.

‘You take life too seriously’, people tell me. 

What can I say…

It comes so naturally to me…

Whether life is actually serious or not, does not seem to matter to me.

Even if this is all just an elaborate joke on the world- & I have a sneaking suspicion it probably is- I simply cannot seem to resist my natural inclination to take it seriously.

I let it play merry hell with my blood pressure.

Try as I might- I simply cannot seem to sit back and relax, while the stupidity horror parade marches through my world like a Bozo Blitzkrieg…led by the mind numb fundamentalist right wing in America.

Examining footage over again of the Oklahoma bombing, and listening to the interviews with members of the extreme right wing fanatical religious groups sworn to take down society…

I realised that hate is alive and well and living everywhere.

And as much as it would serve me better to let it slide…

Let it all fall away and ‘mind my own business’ like Crocodile Dundee when asked about his position on No Nukes…

I cannot seem to.

It is so hard to ignore.

The hatred.

It seems there are people out there under every rock and boulder, waiting to spring forth like insects once exposed to do their damage.

Even here on FB…in the unlikeliest of places, there lurketh hatred unlike anything I have ever encountered in my life.

Only this week, I have seen bigotry the like of which I have never seen- not even as a cop.

It is insidious, because it was so well hidden.

No jackboots and swastikas and skinheads here; under the surface of cheesy FB groups, otherwise seemingly innocuous, there beats the true heart of hatred and loathing.

I should have known better when some of the members seemed to be right wing gun nuts champing at the bit to flaunt their wares.   

Scratch the surface…and the true colours come scuttling out.

Hatred, anger, of the evangelistic type…the destructive type that cannot be reasoned with.

That will not listen.

The type that has taken us to war in Iraq over bullshit.

It is the kind of hatred that abhors a different perspective on live.

It seems to have an objection to basic humanitarianism.

And it loves viciousness.

And it is absolutely correct.

It doesn’t care about the UN, legality, or morality.

And it seems to want to destroy anything slightly different.

Bomb the shit out of it.

So what? 

Hatred is out there. So I found it.

What did I expect? Not to find so much of it.

And it loves company.

When you realise how much there actually is- a lot of it possibly lurking beneath the innocent exterior of friends in the midst…

It is very hard to remember that kindness is your region.

Because it makes you so angry.

Stupidity makes me angry.

And yet- how can you fight against bigotry, racism, anger and malevolent rage?

We know the US has become so desperate in its paranoia & choked by the reflux of its own hypocritical- and probably confusing- foreign policy…

It is bombing anything and everything that moves.

This too is how the general populace are behaving.

They have quite simply gone mad with paranoia.

And like the Monsters Due on Maple Street- they are retaliating in their droves.

Retaliating against what they perceive to be the threat.

With scant regard for what was actually said or done.

 & they are conditioned to think they are in the RIGHTS…no matter what.

Might is right.

Like a Terminator- it will not be argued with, reasoned with…

Negotiated with, or stopped.

It flies into action, bombing anything different.

It does not wait for UN ratification.

And it is dangerous.

Worse still…I have seen up close how popular it is, how much it loves company…

How it clusters together.

The maniacal glee with which it views its views its manifest destiny.

It becomes…feverish.

Positively jingoistic.

So possessed of its correctness.

Screaming ‘BANZAI’ as it dives its plane into the target.

Taking everything with it.    

The show goes on.

As far back as I can remember, from my own fondling men of the frock, abusive fathers & corrupt cops to the broader ghastly destructive weirdness of 9/11 and beyond…

It all seems part of the same weirdness.

The great conspiracy of hate and mistrust that attacks anything resembling anything different; different race, different colour, different belief, language, ways of seeing the world…

And it bombs the hell out of it.

Because it cannot think things through to a better conclusion.

Like peace. And love.

It is a sad fact…I have come face to face with it…& it spells the death knell for the human race.

It will kill us, eventually.

ALL of us.

Because in its vehemence…it pulls out all the stops…& will die for its martyrdom of hate.

It would rather burn in a fireball taking everything decent with it…

Than allow anything different to exist in the world.

The basic view of the white supremacist.

I should simply accept that there is no reasoning with hatred.

BUT…it all seems like a huge slap in my face.

I cannot seem to NOT take it personally.

I perceive it to all be a personal affront against me.  And in my righteous indignation- I take it on daily, like Quixote wilting at tind-mills.

I simply cannot resist taking it seriously.

Even though by now…

I am beginning to look foolish.

Especially to me.

Believing in a better world.

The impossible dream of justice.

Something in me tells me if I do not go gently into that good night of madness- if I continue to rage against it- either it will make a difference to that madness…

Or to me.

One or the other…something has to give.

So how can I lie back and think of happy thoughts…

When all this craziness is going on?

I have a full head of steam at the moment- what with the saga of the Molesting Priests coming to a conclusion with the pending sentencing of Brother Mamo this week.

I feel like I am on a roll, and might as well take on all comers.

Everything from online fascists to the 9/11 conspirators, and the NOW.

I want to take on all of it.

Or die trying.

Why?

Because I got a taste.

By freak of nature…when the molesting priest pled guilty to all charges earlier this year…

I thought anything was possible.

Even if I am wrong- even if this as just a strange and unusual twist of faith…

I cannot sit still.

I am pushing the envelope- on the off chance I might be able to get away with something else.

What if one can have a streak of luck against injustice?

What if not only we brought the molesting priests to justice…

But I was able rising on the wave of this success…

To push a few other things to their conclusion?

Bring a racist to justice?

Nail a hacker?

An anti-semite?

Solve 9/11, and bring the perpetrators to justice?

Call China to account for it’s human rights anomalies?

Hardly likely.

But what if?

Even if this is just an impossible dream…

What if?

I have no time for kindness.

What kindness?

What do I do if I don’t feel very kind?

What is this is no time for kindness?

What if a sustained edge in our voice is called for?

To give- if not the evildoers their comeuppance…

To give us hope?

Even if it is all in our head?

As a postscript- there was one thing from the whirlwind of hate that gave me hope.

As I stood in the furnace…one lone voice send me a PM.

A man I had never met before…someone I assumed was part of the right wingers, but his voice seemed…different.

He came to me, clarifying what I meant.

He asked me questions.

Seemingly in a spirit of reconciliation.

He sounded…

Like the Dalai Lama.

He said…’I care about people’.

One good thing came from all the hate.

That lone voice of peace, love and compassion.

Why do I even bother persisting with the human race when it is so hateful?

This lone voice in the wilderness.

Looking for peace.

Might is indeed right, and hate will no doubt win in the end.

But I liked that peaceful voice, in the melee.

It gave me…

Hope to carry on.