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I prepare my weekly blogs in a haphazard fashion. Sometimes I work on two or three at once. Sometimes I work on one and put it aside to work on it at a later time. I’ve been working on a blog entitled Reality TV for months. It’s a loathsome topic for me and I can’t seem to get it done. There’s no rhyme or reason for the processing and posting of these blogs. Sometimes it’s a news event that gets me typing away, and other times it’s a song or a mood. Writing is all about mood. I have never experienced writer’s block either during the blog creations nor when I wrote my novel. My problem is stopping. Once I start I’m at it for hours. This particular blog was pumped out in 20 minutes though I started it a few weeks ago. It’s a record. It isn’t the best blog I’ve written but it’s one that got my blood boiling. I thoroughly enjoyed its creation.
My political leanings fall slightly to the right of Jesus. He was a passionate human rights activist and a dedicated socialist believing everyone should be loved and cared for regardless of ethnicity or socioeconomic status. He loved the leper and the prostitute and the average person equally. Because of his birth (and our subsequent belief in his existence) the world is forever absolved of sin. He even loved those who would--and did--betray him. The man loved everyone and believed everyone was worthy. I’m with him most of the way but he was, after all, Jesus. I am not. I have intense hatred for many groups of people. And here they are:
I turned on the news late this afternoon [this part was written a few weeks ago] and immediately heard a report about a young teen girl who was gang raped and robbed after being drugged. This occurred in front of a large group of young people. Some were teens and some were in their early twenties. In the age of cell phones where each person there probably had one, the police were not called for quite some time. They all watched. I went to the kitchen to warm my dinner and while waiting for the microwave to beep I heard that someone attacked a 19-year-old girl on her way home from school (college?) but she got away. This was the first five minutes of the news. I understand that the alleged culprits in the first case have now been captured. I hate them. I’m not fond of the onlookers either, but I monitor my hate and I’m disgusted with them but I am reserving hate for where it truly belongs, with the vicious thugs and malcontents who brutally attacked a 15-year-old girl. At a teen dance.
Over the last few days as I came back to this blog [now it’s Wednesday 11/18] I heard about a man who killed his girlfriend and her baby. A few years ago he killed his previous girlfriend’s baby. After killing that child he went to prison for six years and was released for good behavior. I repeat: after killing his previous girlfriend’s baby he went to prison and was released after six years for good behavior. (Don’t touch your computer screen. Your fingers will burn.) I hate him.
Not a single day goes by where I don’t read or hear a story about a kidnapped, murdered child, sometimes at the hands of his or her parents. I hate those parents. Then there are the stories of young people, often children, imprisoned and tortured for years. (Jaycee Duggard is one of countless others.) I hate those kidnappers and rapists and molesters of children. Children all over the world are enslaved for labor and the pedophile sex trade. It’s actually a popular tourist attraction in many nations. These children rarely make it to adulthood. Young men and women are often kidnapped and sold into the sex slave trade and shipped all over the world as well. Or kidnapped and raped and tortured and murdered. I hate the people who hurt these children and young men and women. There’s plenty of evil in the world, but when it is directed at children, I’m about as far away from Jesus as a person could be.
If someone robs a liquor store and in the process injures (not kills) the clerk, it is terribly sad. The suspect, however, might be a candidate for rehabilitation. Robbers do not have an overwhelming desire to rob liquor stores. I suspect it’s usually for money to buy drugs or just money for whatever purpose they feel they need it for. If they are captured and prosecuted and have even an ounce of brain tissue it is absolutely possible for them to be rehabilitated. It is not possible for a pedophile to be rehabilitated.
I desire George Clooney. It’s never going to go away because it’s how I’m wired. If, however, we are born with a desire to molest children, that’s who we are forever. Likewise, if we have it in us to kill a baby, it is unlikely that six years in prison will rehabilitate us. We will remain murdering pieces of crap and should remain in prison forever. The death penalty is too good for those people. I hate those people.
Parents who murder their children so they can go to a party or have a social life are high on my list of people I hate. We hear about them all the time. Cassey Anthony in Florida is awaiting trial for allegedly (what crap) killing her daughter Calley. Susan Smith drove her car into a lake to get rid of her kids so she could have the man of her dreams. Scott Peterson murdered his wife and unborn baby so he could play with his girlfriend. I hate Susan Smith. I hate Cassey Anthony. I hate Scott Peterson. By the way, our justice system is broken so Cassey may or may not be found guilty. If she does go to prison maybe she’ll get off in six years. Maybe she could start dating Curtis Martin. (See paragraph four.) She no longer has a child for him to murder. She took care of that herself, allegedly. (Right.)
Here’s something else I hate and it’s part of the problem and why monsters are among us. I listened to a woman, a bureaucrat, discussing neglected and abused children that are sometimes discovered in our social services system. Many are not discovered but when they are it’s usually horrific. This woman, well intentioned but inept, stated that the continuing deterioration of the system to protect these children was, and this kills me, unacceptable.
Having our mail placed inadvertently in our neighbor’s mailbox is unacceptable. Coming home from the grocery store to discover they forgot to put our milk in the grocery bag is unacceptable. Having our car serviced for an estimate of $250 and then being told when we pick it up that it’s $350 is unacceptable. Children living in filth, being tortured by their caregivers, molested and raped by their caregivers, being starved by their caregivers, being forced to live in cages, and closets, and tents, is not unacceptable. It’s a gross horrific disgusting incredulous and foul failure of our justice and social services systems and we should be collectively horrified and ashamed. It’s so far beyond the overused and ridiculous “unacceptable” as to be absurd beyond belief.
The bureaucrats who find these children and say they are living in “unacceptable” conditions should all go to prison with the guy in paragraph four and rot there forever. I find that highly acceptable. In fact, it’s delightful. I’m giddy at the thought. If more of those social services employees that we all pay for with our tax dollars were sent to prison for failing those children we would have fewer neglected and abused children. Their supervisors should go with them. The employees have limited time and resources because our tax money is spread rather thin because government is loaded with top-heavy managers and no accountability. How much does the prosecutor earn for sending the bum in paragraph four to prison for six years? I hope someone sues the system that let that monster out of his cage.
We are not supposed to hate anyone. I, however, loath, despise, detest, abhor and hate the people above and all their kind. I hate them. I hear about them every day and every day I hate them more. And let me just throw in the abuse of animals. Yes, I mean you, Michael Vick, as you play football and make a ton of money on the backs of all the tortured animals you are responsible for. It’s said you paid your debt to society. No, you did not. And neither did that creep in paragraph four who has now killed two children even though he “paid his debt to society” after killing his first girlfriend’s baby. You can never repay the debt of torture and murder. It’s who you are, Michael Vick and Curtis Martin.
Hate should be carefully monitored but not suppressed. It’s the same with love. Both are strong human emotions, both are often used too freely. We don’t “love lettuce.” We “like” lettuce. We thoroughly “enjoy” lettuce. Often we say “I hate spinach” or “I hate wrestling” or I hate “Angelina Jolie.” We may not “like” the taste of spinach, or perhaps we don’t “enjoy” wrestling, or we may feel “disappointed” that Brad left Jennifer for Angelina (who cares), but none of those situations rise to the level of murdering a child. Hate should be reserved and brought out only in the most outrageous and despicable circumstances. When we save hate for the proper occasion then bring it out in full force, it’s an awakening. It can set us free. But hating indiscriminately, and loving indiscriminately, can be harmful. Caution must be used with both emotions but both serve us well.
There’s really no outlet for us to release the hate legally other than venting (which is what I’m doing). There’s nothing I can do about the child murderer in paragraph four nor is it my individual responsibility to do anything about him. That’s why we have a criminal justice system, poor, deplorable, and deteriorating as it is. We can vote for the appropriate propositions and measures and politicians (good luck) to improve our society but that’s the extent of our actions in a civilized nation. It’s also helpful to keep an eye out for each other, those of us who are not monsters. Our emotions keep us alive. We need to listen to our feelings and work with them and make decisions based on our enormous capacity to do good in the world.
It’s important to experience the full spectrum of human emotions. It enhances our ability to function in the world, to carefully select people we want in our lives, to make responsible decisions. Suppressing emotions can damage how we react to a myriad of opportunities to make a difference in our personal lives and in the lives we touch. Holding down hate desensitizes us and makes us believe bad things are “unacceptable” rather than outrageous and horrific and sick and depraved and evil. Pure evil.
I feel great. Best 20 minutes I’ve spent in a long time.
www.sharonstrawhandgarner.com
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