{UAH} RWANDA AND SOUTH SUDAN WITH ALL THE GREAT LAKES FRIENDS MUST KNOW HATE IS A SYMPTOM OF TERMINAL ILLNESS
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RWANDA AND SOUTH SUDAN WITH ALL THE GREAT LAKES FRIENDS MUST KNOW HATE IS A SYMPTOM OF TERMINAL ILLNESS
Hate is a symptom of a terminal sickness of the soul. Hate is irrational. The scientific literature on hate shows that haters hate because they are afraid, insecure, jealous; or because they hate themselves or want to become the very object of their hate. Above all haters hate themselves because they feel inadequate, powerless, hopeless and helpless.
Mandela said, "No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate." When I think of those in power in Ethiopia today, I wonder and ponder if Mandela is right in his philosophical assessment. He added, "If they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite." I really want to believe that Mandela's principle would apply to those in power despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
As a matter of principle and practice, we must strive to live by Gandhi's rule: "Hate the sin and not the sinner." When we hate the haters, we become their mirror images. We are who we hate. If we hate Meles or his gang as a human beings, we become them. If we must hate, it must be their acts and not them as human beings.
Hate is a powerful force. The hate spread by the Nazis destroyed entire nations. Hate in Rwanda destroyed the lives of millions of Rwandans. In Darfur, hate destroyed the lives of millions of Sudanese. Thousands continue to die in Nigeria and the Central African Republic because of religious hatred today. We must never, never give into hate.
I believe there are two types of people in the world. There are those who follow the golden rule "love thy neighbor as thyself." There are others who live by what I call the "copper rule", "hate thy neighbor as thyself." Haters think they can overcome their own helplessness, insecurity, guilt and inability to change their circumstances by hating.
We must go beyond hate to love. Dr. Martin Luther King and Mandela have taught us about the unconquerable power of love (agape) of humanity and community; the power of healing a society afflicted by the cancer of racial, ethnic and religious hate. Mandela had every reason to hate and exact revenge. For 27 years Mandela's name was Prisoner no. 46664. When he emerged from the prison gates that February morning in 1990, he beamed with that million dollar smile of his. He did not have a single hateful thing to say about the masters of apartheid who jailed him for 27 years and separated him from his family. He taught us a great lesson: "As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison." Mandela was never a prisoner of hate. The prison was apartheid hate itself and the inmates were the wardens and masters of apartheid. Mandela left prison to liberate the real inmates of apartheid chained behind their walls of hate, fear and revenge.
We should learn from Dr. King: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." He taught that "we must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies." Forgiveness and reconciliation are the antidotes, the cure, for hate.
BY
Professor Alemayehu G. Mariam
--
H.OGWAPITI
-----------------------------------------------------
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
---Theodore Roosevelt
Hate is a symptom of a terminal sickness of the soul. Hate is irrational. The scientific literature on hate shows that haters hate because they are afraid, insecure, jealous; or because they hate themselves or want to become the very object of their hate. Above all haters hate themselves because they feel inadequate, powerless, hopeless and helpless.
Mandela said, "No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate." When I think of those in power in Ethiopia today, I wonder and ponder if Mandela is right in his philosophical assessment. He added, "If they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite." I really want to believe that Mandela's principle would apply to those in power despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
As a matter of principle and practice, we must strive to live by Gandhi's rule: "Hate the sin and not the sinner." When we hate the haters, we become their mirror images. We are who we hate. If we hate Meles or his gang as a human beings, we become them. If we must hate, it must be their acts and not them as human beings.
Hate is a powerful force. The hate spread by the Nazis destroyed entire nations. Hate in Rwanda destroyed the lives of millions of Rwandans. In Darfur, hate destroyed the lives of millions of Sudanese. Thousands continue to die in Nigeria and the Central African Republic because of religious hatred today. We must never, never give into hate.
I believe there are two types of people in the world. There are those who follow the golden rule "love thy neighbor as thyself." There are others who live by what I call the "copper rule", "hate thy neighbor as thyself." Haters think they can overcome their own helplessness, insecurity, guilt and inability to change their circumstances by hating.
We must go beyond hate to love. Dr. Martin Luther King and Mandela have taught us about the unconquerable power of love (agape) of humanity and community; the power of healing a society afflicted by the cancer of racial, ethnic and religious hate. Mandela had every reason to hate and exact revenge. For 27 years Mandela's name was Prisoner no. 46664. When he emerged from the prison gates that February morning in 1990, he beamed with that million dollar smile of his. He did not have a single hateful thing to say about the masters of apartheid who jailed him for 27 years and separated him from his family. He taught us a great lesson: "As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison." Mandela was never a prisoner of hate. The prison was apartheid hate itself and the inmates were the wardens and masters of apartheid. Mandela left prison to liberate the real inmates of apartheid chained behind their walls of hate, fear and revenge.
We should learn from Dr. King: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." He taught that "we must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies." Forgiveness and reconciliation are the antidotes, the cure, for hate.
BY
Professor Alemayehu G. Mariam
--
H.OGWAPITI
-----------------------------------------------------
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
---Theodore Roosevelt
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