Holt, I almost lost the good sense of your post when you got to the "blonde" self part.
It rattled me considerably. I always pictured you as brunette. Give me a moment to get myself together.
...................................................................................................................Okay.
Sure, I've been an outsider many times. Right here, Poet once scolded me for not remembering that this thread is mostly Atheists, and for posting something that might offend them. Yes, I grew up in Protestant suburb where there were not many Catholics. I recall very occasionally getting some snide comments about that, but nothing remotely approaching hate. To my truthful knowledge, I don't ever remember being the object of hate. Maybe I'm just not observant enough (even on this thread?).
Countries grow up, just as people do. As ours has matured, it has set the standard for the world in terms of trying to ensure equality for all ... beginning, more or less, with a Civil War to settle one important issue of equal rights. It was not the only time in our history that people died to enforce that point.
Discrimination against "the other" has taken many forms in our nation, and crept into many venues of our lives. It has been motivated by a wide range of reasons and attitudes. True hate has sometimes been one of them. Our nation -- which is its people, not its government -- has been stalwart and resolute, consistently, in rooting these out, and correcting them, whether by law or social opprobrium.
We still have a way to go. We will probably never reach an end that entirely satisfies us. The "we" and the "us" are the American people.
Do you know of any people who have done more?
That is why I bristle when I hear the people of this country characterized as "cherishing" the freedom to hate. |
