Give Hate a Chance
Tonight a read a column from my favorite rabbi, Shmuley Boteach. In it he talked about Al- Zarqawi’s death and the reaction from the religious community. Unlike the usual, let’s love our enemies speech, he stated that we should hate that which is evil.
He writes, “How many times have we heard that the problem with the world today is that there isn’t enough love, when precisely the opposite is true? Evil currently stalks the earth because there isn’t enough hate. Moral people, afraid of being poisoned by hate, are becoming indifferent to evil.”
He uses the peaceful deaths of Pol Pot and Idi Amin as examples of allowing evil men to rule and flourish.
Since the death of Hitler, it seems that the Western world has had an apathetic attitude towards evil. We banded together, briefly, against evil after 9/11. We saw evil kill innocents on our own American soil and realized what nature truly is. It wasn’t long after, however, that people began to forget that evil ran free for a couple of hours on that fateful day. The intellectuals blamed the innocents for evil’s deed. The president was criticized for naming three evil empires.
Since 9/11 evil has become stronger as more of the innocent forget. Now we have other nations joining the “Axis of Evil”. Venezuela and Bolivia are joining evil nations in the Middle East, reminding me of the boy in the black trench coat who so badly wants to be popular, that he joins the “bad crowd” in order to get attention. Murder rates have gone back up. More and more people lack the will to fight the war on terror and protest it. People forget why those people in Guantanamo Bay are in there.
The scary thing is that those in those evil societies are watching us with a smile. Soon it will be safe again for another strike. We are letting our guard down.
I think the Rabbi has a great point. We should hate those who wish to oppress us and take away our right to the pursuit of happiness. Giving peace a chance will only give the enemy a chance to kill.
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