Skip to main content

We Must Learn to Love All People

I did not know any of the 49 people murdered in the Orlando night club. I would eulogize them one by one if I did. And so I will eulogize all of them.

They were individual humans. They had careers and jobs, families and friends, lovers and partners. They had hobbies and interests; they possessed skills and talents. They went out on a Sunday night to have some drinks, to laugh, and dance, and enjoy life with others.

They were a part of our human family. And so they belonged to each of us as well. And that we too often forget. Our hates we remember. Our prejudices and aversions, our fear of differences, our loathing those not like us—that we keep in focus. But the fact we are all connected in our humanity, that we are all related as people of earth, that, we sadly forget.

The abomination in Orlando was not an ugly accident; it was not a fluke of nature or some terrible mishap. It was a planned and thought out act of horrendous violence, prejudice and rage against—not “that group,” or “those people,” or “gays”—but rather against our human family members. It was against all of us as thinking, caring people.

That well-known line in Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” is appropriate here: “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”

We can blame this nightmare on despicable politics, on our gruesome gun culture, on irrational homophobia, and all of that no doubt had its influence to some extent. But the cold truth is, those shocking murders came from some distorted place within us as a society. They were the result of lies we believe about others. They happened because we refuse to accept people we have chosen to fear or detest. People we classify, separate, isolate, and keep at a distance, unwilling to see them as a part of each and every one of us.

Wouldn’t it be something if we could get to the place where we stopped giving each other labels—Blacks, Mexicans, LGBT, Jews, Muslims, Christians, Liberals, Conservatives—and just saw one another as interesting human beings, as people related to us in profoundly human ways?

Perhaps that is one way to end the violence we just keep heaping on each other over and over again. Stop labeling one another.

Here’s another: learning to love all people.

In Audrey Niffenegger’s amazing novel, “The Time Traveller’s Wife,” Clare Abshire, out of a life of heartache, mystery, despair, beauty and loss, says, “There is only one page left to write on. I will fill it with words of only one syllable. I love. I have loved. I will love.”

I am angry and I am deeply saddened by this vicious attack on the gay community. But if I and our society could achieve Clare’s level of maturity after these barbarous acts, then we might end our violence against one another.


© 2016 Timothy Moody

Comments

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

If I had five minutes to evacuate--what would I take with me?

If I was told there was a bomb in my building and I had five minutes to evacuate my apartment I’d grab a grocery bag and quickly toss these items into it: 1. A photo of my grandparents, Mom and Pop and me, when I was 15 years old. I learned what love is made of from them. I learned what it is to be kissed on and hugged in arms so tender they felt like God’s arms. I discovered self worth from those two angels in human flesh. Of all the people in my life, they were the ones who made me feel I counted. Honestly, whatever capacity I have to love others came from them. 2. A sentimental, dog-eared, stars in the margin copy of Pat Conroy’s, “The Prince of Tides.” It is a book I have read three times and often return to for its wisdom. It is a harsh, profoundly tragic novel, the story of a family so broken and tortured by such flawed and wounded people that it is sometimes difficult to turn the next page. And yet it is the story of such Herculean courage and endurance that you want...

A Losing Strategy

OPINION PAGE (c) 2024 Timothy Moody   The Republican strategy to mock and judge others has passed into some form of insatiable, all-devouring nastiness. It is so poisonous and contemptuous that it is now just evil.  Republican Governor of Arkansas, Sara Huckabee Sanders, suggested to a crowd of Trump supporters Tuesday night that Kamala Harris can't be humble because she doesn't have any children of her own.  When will Americans decide they don't want government leaders who are so arrogantly insensitive, as Sanders was, that they offend everyone?  This crude, villainous rhetoric transcends political partisanship. It’s evil, dangerous, and insulting.  The poet Ezra Pound’s brief lines are appropriate here, “Pull down your vanity, How mean your hates” To suggest that someone cannot be humble because they don't have children is not just a cheap political comment. It's an attack on a person’s humanity and worth.  And that is now, and has been fo...

OPINION PAGE:

  OPINION PAGE © 2024 Timothy Moody The apparent assassination attempt against Donald Trump last Sunday afternoon at his Trump International Golf Club was foiled by the Secret Service. Details are still coming in about it, and it's not yet known why the suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, apparently wanted to shoot Trump. The botched attempt was amateurish in every way, just as the one in July was by a kid 150 yards from Trump.  Conspiracy theorists are having a field day.  The former President is, of all things, blaming these attempts on his life with what he called the “violent rhetoric” of President Biden and VP Harris. Of course, that is absurd, especially coming from Trump, who has consistently been guilty of that very thing since he became president in 2016 and even before.  His speeches, X posts, and comments on his Truth Social platform have been endlessly filled with threatening language and incitement to violence.  He suggested those protest...