The world is on fire. There have been 297 mass shootings in the U.S. so far this year. Over 12,000 people have lost their lives to gun violence since January 1. Hatred is on the rise. Antisemitism is blatantly expressed and has led to the deadliest attack against the Jewish community on American soil in the history of the United States. More and more we are a divided nation. Two countries in one. Divided by location, by media, by fundamental moral values, and even by where we shop and what we eat.
How do we heal from this divide?
How do we stop the hate that is rising?
I don’t have solid answers, but I can’t stand by and witness what is happening without saying something—I’m not writing to persuade you to believe what I believe, but to make known where I stand. I don’t know what good my voice will do, and maybe it won’t make a difference at all, but I say with Speed Racer that “It’s all I know how to do and I’ve gotta do something.”
We cannot compromise with hate. We cannot meet hate in the middle. When one ideology promotes hate and discord and violence against others, that ideology cannot be conceded to. Antisemitism, white nationalism, and the alt-right that has been born from their seeds are not reasonable ideologies that deserve compromise. They are hate-filled, morally bankrupt beliefs that lead to violence and destruction.
We must condemn such hatred and vitriol wherever we see it. Pres. Trump has repeatedly and continually used the language and symbols of antisemitism and the alt-right to sow fear and appease portions of his base. He is complicit in the growing violence and hatred directed at Jews, Muslims, queer Americans, and other marginalized groups that has been on the rise since his election. The Republican party, as long as they vote with, support his legislative agenda, and refuse to dissent meaningfully, share in that complicity.
I do not believe that every single Republican or conservative is morally bankrupt. My parents, extended family, and many of my in-laws are some of the best people I know and stridently conservative. And there is blame to go around. The divisive rhetoric and increasingly polarized world we inhabit is not the sole result of one ideology.
However, we must all unite against this type of hatred. If we allow violence and inherently hateful, bigoted, and misguided beliefs to be spread, we too are complicit in the result—violence, terror, and destruction. We cannot normalize hate. We must not become desensitized to the wrongness of what surrounds us.
We must discover what draws people to these ideas of hatred and violence and oppression and bigotry. We cannot stop decrying these ideas, cannot cease in our fight against them. And we need to uncover how we can meet the needs of those that are drawn to such hate so that they become a different, better version of themselves.
We need to protect the marginalized among us. We must care for the poor, the oppressed, the immigrants, the Jews, the Muslims, the queer folks, and the outcasts.
I don’t know long-term what the solution to the hatred and divisiveness is. I don’t know how to bring our two increasingly distinct Americas together. But I think we must. We have to stop hating each other. I don’t know what to do. I feel helpless and lost and scared at what the future holds for me and my yet-unborn baby.
I believe in the power of love. I believe in the inherent goodness of people. I believe that it’s not too late. I believe that each human life is incommensurable with another—each individual is filled with innate human dignity and divinity and deserves to be treated as the full human that they are. I believe that it is on us to make the world Zion—I must fight injustice and bend that arc of the moral universe towards justice. I believe that there is work to do. I believe that I have a part in that work. I believe you have a part of that work.
I pray that God will help the outcasts and that God will show me what I must do to be a part of that great work.
Conor Hilton 