Words of Wisdom, Not Hate

This was sent to me by someone who knew I was an Auburn fan.  Phillip Marshall has been an Auburn journalist for many years, but I don't read many sports columns or blogs, so I had just about forgotten about him.  

Contrast this with what Clay Travis wrote in his column that I mentioned earlier.  Night and day.  This is what a person writes that has the interest of mankind at heart along with his country, not the divisive drivel that so many writers seem to thrive on - hate-mongering, propaganda, and fear-evoking stuff.  Sadly, far too many are drawn to the latter.  That is what the Russians wanted in our country, and it looks like it's what they've gotten.

So, thanks, Phillip, for this little bit of sanity and kindness.

ON LOVE, HATE AND AN OLD MAN'S JOURNEY

On Dec. 25, I will be 71 years old. I have witnessed so much history.

I watched television for 18 hours the day Neal Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the moon and said “One small step for man. A giant leap for mankind.”

I’ve gone from black and white television and transistor radios to the wonders of the Internet.

I haven’t personally experienced the horrors of war, but I’ve lost friends who did.

My two brothers, my sister and my father were gone before they were 50 years old. I miss them terribly to this day.

I listened to Martin Luther King say he had a dream in one of more powerful, impactful speeches in human history.

I saw George Wallace stand in the schoolhouse door at the University of Alabama, creating yet more hate and fear because of the color of someone’s skin.

I saw an African-American be elected President of the United States.

In my lifetime, the scourges of polio, small pox and tuberculosis have been wiped out. Cancer and HIV are no longer that death sentences they once were.

But no one has yet found a cure for hate, for intolerance.

Those evils are more easily spread now by the wonders of social media. And they take many forms. They take the forms of made-up conspiracy theories designed to literally destroy those who might think differently. They take the form of name-calling and belittling, of trying to diminish others.

In their worst forms, those evils take away joy and happiness and even life itself.

If there is one lesson I have learned in my years on this earth it is that hate for someone because he or she looks differently, talks differently, believes differently, loves differently or worships differently ultimately damages the hater more than the hated.

Love and understanding, empathy for the struggles of others that we might not understand, compassion for our fellow man and generosity of spirit is where life’s greatest blessings can be found.

There are no blessings to be found in hate. Only darkness.