Community and Hate

If you're on Facebook at all, you've seen tons of red for Marriage Equality.  I cannot tell you how many people I have seen post a status about how excited they are to see all the red on their timelines.

There is a community here, right?  This one even goes across party lines in some cases.  Support Marriage Equality.

It is also Passover.  This story, told to me by my friend Diana, inspired today's post: Diana and her family were invited to a seder by a friend of theirs.  They were walking to their friend's house and a man protesting Marriage Equality walks up to them, holding, as she described it, "a seriously derogatory sign."  He started preaching at them about how "Gays will go to Hell and our Nation will be Damned if we let Gays marry."  Diana politely asked the man to go away. He didn't.  She asked him once again to take his message of hate away from her children.  Thankfully, the light changed, but the man delivered one final message to her and her family as they crossed the street, "You're going to Hell!" 

Diana was, understandably, I think, incensed.  I believe in freedom. I believe in free speech.  I do not believe in preaching.  I believe that people are entitled to their opinion, no matter what mine is.  I do my best to respect their opinions.  I still do not believe in what I call "street Preaching."  Don't preach to someone who doesn't want to hear it.  

I do not deny that it is possible to build a community around hate.  But what happens with that community?  It is, I believe, a competitive "community."  A group united against something, who takes their victories in making others unhappy.  

There have been many studies done that conclude that the best relief for stress and the best thing for your own happiness is to help others.  So what does happen to those who hate so vehemently?  

I don't have answers to those questions.  But I believe that they must be considered as we move forward, both in building education and building communities in general.