I’m troubled. I’ve been troubled for a long, long while. Troubled by the sheer and obvious hatred of people who disagree politically with one another.
I’m especially troubled this week by the way certain people have attacked Sarah Palin on issues that have nothing to do with her character or how she has run a business, then a town, and then a state. How could anyone say such disgusting things as I’ve read on the Internet? I read one blogger’s comments who stated that Governor Palin purposefully flew on an airplane at a dangerous time in her pregnancy to try to cause herself to miscarry. I’d like to know how he “knew” what she was thinking at any time. Does he know her personally? Did she tell him this “fact” in secret?
My daughter, BTW, was a flight attendant for over 19 years and she worked and flew for the better part of both of her pregnancies. And my cousins have a Down Syndrome son who will turn 50 next year, and he is and has always been a beloved part of our family.
While I do not intend to vote for Obama for a number of reasons, I have no reason not to believe that he is a man who wants unity in America and a change for the better in our land. If that is truly who he is and what he wants, he must be as troubled as I am by the hatred of the left toward the right.
It’s the right of the people in America to lawfully assemble. It’s the right of the people to protest against a war, to express their opinions. It is certainly the right of the people to vocally disagree with the party in power. But must it be done with unbridled hatred toward fellow citizens, physically as those “anarchists” did outside the RNC or verbally as others do in print?
I have lived my life under Democratic presidents and Republican presidents. I have lived my life with the Democrats in power in congress and the Republicans in power in congress. I have frequently disliked decisions made in the halls and offices of Washington D.C by both and/or either parties, but I have never hated those I disagreed with. People on the other side of the political fence are not my enemies. Why must they make me theirs?
“But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” (Luke 6:27-28)
May Americans as a people learn to live this way, doing good to those who hate us within our own borders, blessing those who curse us within our own borders, praying for those who mistreat us within our own borders. And may God have mercy on America. We don’t deserve it, but we certainly need it. America, America, God shed His grace on thee.
-rlh-
