The Route: Phil’s Unfinished Story

What is Hate?

It's a real issue

In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics.' All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia. 

-George Orwell

Is it speech? Is it graffiti? Is it a name? Is it an attitude?  Is it coded in traditions? Is it assumptions?

Hate crimes rose again in 2017. That's an increase each year in the past three. Law enforcement data shows a 17% increase over 2016.
Hate crimes in schools are up. 
Antisemitism is increasing, up 37%.

ProPublica Is Tracking Hatred

Here's part of what they've found.

• More than half of hate crime victims don't file reports to the police, according to a June BJS report.
• Many police officers get little to no training about how to handle hate crimes. Only 12 states have statutes requiring this type of instruction at police academies.
• At the local level, there are widespread discrepancies in what police consider a hate crime, as well as confusion about how and whether to track hate crimes as such.
• Last year, almost 90 percent of local law enforcement agencies reported having zero hate crimes in their communities.
• Even if hate crimes are investigated, they aren't always prosecuted. In Texas, 981 potentially bias-motivated crimes were reported to police from 2010 to 2015. Only eight cases ended in convictions.
• Like local police, federal agencies often fail to send their hate crime statistics to the FBI, too.
• Violence by white supremacist groups sometimes goes unchecked by police, as was the case in Charlottesville and with members of the so-called Rise Above Movement.

In the real world, as lived and experienced by real people, the demand for human rights and dignity, the longing for liberty and justice and opportunity, the hatred of oppression and corruption and cruelty is reality. -John McCain

The Southern Poverty Law Center Defines Hate Groups

The Southern Poverty Law Center defines a hate group as an organization that – based on its official statements or principles, the statements of its leaders, or its activities – has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.

The organizations on our hate group list vilify others because of their race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity – prejudices that strike at the heart of our democratic values and fracture society along its most fragile fault lines.

Fear is the most debilitating emotion in the world, and it can keep you from ever truly knowing yourself and others - its adverse effects can no longer be overlooked or underestimated. Fear breeds hatred, and hatred has the power to destroy everything in its path. -Aucoin

How can we end hate? The SPLC came up with ten ways!

• 1. Act
• 2. Join Forces
• 3. Support the Victims
• 4. Speak Up
• 5. Educate Yourself
• 6. Create An Alternative
• 7. Pressure Leaders
• 8. Stay Engaged
• 9. Teach Acceptance
• 10. Dig Deeper

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.  MLK, Jr.

Hate crimes in schools are up. Antisemitism is increasing, up 37%. 

Nationalists

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. -George Santayana

I am a nationalist. Donald Trump

Nationalism cost over 100 million lives in the first half of the 20th century.

It's Armistice Day.Today it's called Veteran's Day. We celebrate those who sacrificed so much in the time of war. The Armistice marked the end of World War I.

It was called the war to end all wars. The Great War. It was fueled by raging nationalism. The Armistice brought temporary peace. There was hope when the League of Nations was formed, but without the participation of the isolationists United States, the League failed to hold the peace. 37 million people died in the first World War. 80 million died in World War II as the allies fought off fascism and more nationalism. It makes me wonder about the rebirth of nationalism here and in Europe. Why on earth would we go there again?

The animated short is "A War to End No Wars" published by Cog In The Works Media. .

The Last of the Melting Snow is performed by The Leisure Society.