a2a_linkname=”TI&S: Learn To Love (Part 5)”;a2a_linkurl=”http://timvalentine.wordpress.com/2009/04/24/learntolove5/”;
***IN CONCLUSION TO THE LEARN TO LOVE***
If I am to always to seek love, truth, consensus I must accept that the fact that I may never completely achieve it. The position I strive to gain is one that seeks the truth, bare witness to the facts and work towards reconciliation. The goal is to never tear down, derogate or enable anyone.
How are we supposed to learn to love in the deepest sense?
Justice, truth, fairness & equality have been discredited by our need to be seen as good, righteous, value oriented and popular, even when our actions are examined they prove otherwise.
When you love you have difficulties remaining silent when people are treated unfairly. It bothers you when you to witness injustice carried out against innocents. You’re convicted to rightly protest against inequality when you honestly learn to love. Love isn’t accepting any whim or doctrine marketed towards you for temporary social and/or political expediency. Regardless how you’ve experienced it, love is eternal or long lasting.
We all are entangled in the continuous struggle against the good that we want to do and the bad that we’re lead to do. The will to speak the truth against what’s popular or accepted and/or even when it isn’t popular is how we win this battle. I’m still learning to love those who silently discount, ignore or simply dislike me. I may not like what they do or what they’re promoting, but I honestly try to love them.
Recently I wrote a post called, “Let the MF Burn”. I wrote it, because I was fed up with a group of people who has accepted an ideology that goes against what the original ideology of their party. As someone who doesn’t agree with what the party has become year after year since at least the late 1950’s; I believe that the party has found itself lost in an ideological and dangerous philosophical wilderness.
I know there are some who desperately seek something to mask their true outrage, but let’s be honest about what we’re really upset about.
I say this because the same party I affiliate myself with has wondered in the same wilderness as the ones accused find themselves in today. I am weary that some of them of my own party who are wondering on the outskirts of this wilderness. The extreme disenchantment with what these groups of people are essentially accepting and some unintentionally promoting is not a product of love, loyalty or even patriotism, but the opposite.
Have we not come to such an impasse in society that we have accepted the “my way or else” mentality, or shall we be plunged into the abyss of annihilation for those who disagree with us? I can think of few things that are more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
When the signs of hate are disguised and marketed as a patriotic protest against the reversal of what they are actually upset about, you must look at the motivation of the protest. Xenophobia, intolerance and discernment are not bound to one group. But when groups are moved to the fringes of love it turns into hate.
SIDE NOTE: When you immerse yourself into a flag of one belief you forget that same flag is subornate to more than one belief.
When you’re holding a sign of hatred, what are you baring witness too? If you proclaim to be a Christian and we’re a Christian nation, stand behind Christ. To stand behind Christ is to stand in love, tolerance and acceptance. Flags have been used to represent the perpetrators of some notorious deeds. So wrapping yourself in the garments of patriotism as a shield from criticism or to legitimize what you’re doing is not wise. Leave the flag alone and allow it to represent what it is suppose to represent.
You protest because you feel that your voice is unheard, but to have a protest mean something requires you listening to what the one you accuse is actually saying or have said to you.
Those who are impatient and seek change must remember that change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. Disagree or embrace it, but change will never happen if we do not work together. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent, so quit bending over towards any ole whim of doctrine. Get up off your knees and stand up for truth.
We learn by accepting one another. We learn by seeking truth and justice for each other, in return you receive the same for yourself. We learn to respectfully disagree without becoming disagreeable. We learn by always seeking to understand each others position, and when that position doesn’t line up with truth or reality we teach what they need to learn. We learn by serving one another the truth with love and respect regardless of how radical it may appear.
Some say we should worry about the right-wing extremist, others say we have to worry about the left-wing extremist. I believe the question is not which extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be? “The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.”
I’ve often repeated a quote of a man whom I continue to learn from and have tremendous respect for his examples, lessons and sacrifice. So in conclusion I return to the question, how do we learn to love? I believe we must understand that we are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. I can not be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. Once an individual realize that they can rise above the narrow confines of their own individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity, then we have began to learn to love.
References & Inspirations The Washington Post – 02/13/05 “When Sexuality Undercuts a Family’s Ties” Christian Answers – Kevin James Bywater “Is Interracial Marriage Biblical?” NPR: Tell Me More – 04/20/09 “Tax Protests About More than Money”
Oh this is too good. This should help me reach the climax of this blog post. But I can’t forget the media mouthpieces for the T-Bagging with FOX News’ Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity’s excitement over the event.
