Commentary:

Leading by example

For those who are still engaged in the spread of vitriol, take a lesson from two Presidents (emphasis mine):

President Bush praised his predecessor's "energy and joy" Monday as the official portraits of former President Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton were unveiled in a lighthearted ceremony at the White House.

The Clintons received a standing ovation from guests in the East Room of the executive mansion before the paintings by artist Simmie Knox were revealed.

"President Clinton and Senator Clinton, welcome home," Bush said.

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"The president, by his generous words to Hillary and me today, has proved once again that in the end, we are held together by this grand system of ours that permits us to debate and struggle and fight for what we believe is right," Clinton said.

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Disparaged by many Republicans during his two terms in office and impeached over allegations he lied under oath about an affair with a White House intern, Clinton said he hoped to "live long enough to see us return to vigorous debates where we argue who's right and wrong, not who's good and bad."

"My experience is most of the people I've known in this work are good people who love their country desperately," he said. "And I am profoundly grateful that for a brief period I had a chance to be one of them."

Many of my recent posts have been on the spread of hatred I see in blogworld (I prefer Key's word to the term "blogosphere", because it conveys the human element better; Key also posted on this topic, follow the link). Unfortunately, some of the comments I have left in other blogs have been misunderstood. My fundamental point is this: hatred can only destroy, it cannot create. Hatred resulted in the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York City, but before we condemn a certain segment of the world for being "evil", recall that the largest and most deadly terrorist incident in the United States before September 11, 2001 was the Oklahoma City bombing. This atrocity was perpetrated by a native born American, nominally Christian.

Spreading hatred of people only leads to violence. This is not saying that hatred should always be avoided, because there are philosophies (as opposed to the people who follow those philosophies) that should be hated and destroyed. Wahabism is another branch of the philosophy of hate that included Nazism (and fascism in general), the fanatical culture of Imperial Japan of the same era, the more recent display of Serbian "nationalism" in the former Yugoslavia, and the genocide in Rawanda, to name just a few. This philosophy of arrogant conceit and hatred of "the other" has spread like kudzu, where every time it is burned out in one place it springs up and flourishes in another. I am continuing to speak out to the point of hectoring about it because I see the hatred of "the other", ANY other, springing up in America. Every time someone says "liberals make good targets" or "I'm glad Reagan is dead" they feed the hatred, and every time I see it I will continue to speak, even if I lose all my readership and ultimately am speaking only to myself (those taking the role of Cassandra are rarely popular), because it is our obligation to protect the freedoms that have been given to us through so much sacrifice. Nazism was able to take hold because of the silent acquiescence of the citizenry. Are we on the same road? No, not exactly, but there is more than one highway to Hell, and we are in grave danger of becoming that which we are condemning in others, a culture of hate.

Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neil were vigorous political opponents, but they never treated each other with the disrespect I see displayed on a routine basis not only by current officeholders, but by their supporters. We are all Americans, and if we choose to demonize our fellow citizens because they don't agree with us, then we are turning our backs on the very thing that America stands for. We expect respect from the world, but it is a certainty that we will not get it if we cannot even respect each other.