Lines, Walls, and Circles (a poem)
Hate is a cancer. Hate consumes individuals, groups, communities from the inside out. Hate seeks out and destroys that which it cannot understand. Hate masquerades as pietistic religiosity, as egoic correctness, as sanctimonious chatter hiding its insidious presence behind that which it calls good and righteous and faithful. Hate draws lines of demarcation in the sand and constructs walls of stone, steel, wire, glass - ever tightening walls of exclusion constructed on an imaginary border of codified behavior, appearance, allegiance, and beliefs choking all that are living, separating all life from its source, and fear forms its foundation. Love . . . Love conquers hate. Love dispels fear. Love gives life. Love births hope. Love seeks mercy. Love pursues ...