Examing the Warrior and the Nature of Hatred

[ceebeegee]

I can't fathom the kind of hate that would compel someone to come to long Island all the way from Kansas, to hold up signs that says "God Hates Fags." And to bring your kids? These little ones given to your trust, and you teach them to hate? They're holding up signs and spouting unspeakable things, instead of playing with their toys and sleeping in a warm bed? I don't understand any of this.

I'm always torn when it comes to people like this. My first instinct is to ignore them, but then there's the idea of "for evil to triumph, the only requirement is for good people to do nothing." Is it strategic or just cowardly (or lazy) to ignore something like this? Are the F--- P-----es of the world looking for attention, or is there another agenda? So then my reaction is to yell back, because what they say and represent gets me so viscerally. But realistically I know that wouldn't accomplish anything--you'd have two people yelling instead of one. But I don't think I'm evolved enough to return love for hate. I know I should but that's really hard. I have a very difficult time with the whole "turn of the other cheek" of the Christian philosophy. I am a warrior. Maybe the struggle against hatred requires teachers and people who love, and not warriors. Maybe I should beat my sword back into a plowshare.

Comments

[minstrel70.livejournal.com]

Now, there's nothing wrong with home-schooling per se. Let's not equate home-schooling with ignorance and bigotry, here, especially since it's not even determined that these children are in fact home-schooled. (Like any freedom, the freedom to teach one's own children can be misused by the wicked, but the answer isn't to eliminate the freedom).

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

Michael. Please go back and reread what I wrote. I theorized that the kids were homeschooled which I think is a reasonable guess, based on their extreme beliefs (you really think this guy wants to send his kids to public school when they're currently picketing another public school now for supposedly teaching gay tolerance?) and the fact that the kids were picketing far away from their home on a school day. Did I say anything negative per se or otherwise about homeschooling? Did I equate home-schooling with anything? No. And I never said or alluded to anything about eliminating freedoms, either to teach one's kids or otherwise. The point I was making was these kids were likely not exposed to alternative views, because the parents are systematically isolating them.

Need more coffee, apparently

[minstrel70.livejournal.com]

Clearly, I'm not at my intellectual sharpest, as I misread your comment. My apologies. But your statement that "Those kids don't even have the chance the Trenton kids did, because what the Phelps family is doing is not illegal.", in the context of home-schooling, made me believe your criticism was directed at home-schooling as a legal alternative to traditional public or private schools, rather than at the parents.

You're probably right about their education, but it's not certain. I'll agree that it is fairly certain they're not being exposed to a wealth of different opinions at home.

Re: Need more coffee, apparently

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

I think isolating children so completely that they are political clones of oneself and will likely grow up to be repulsive creatures is wrong. But not illegal. Don't read into that a larger criticism of home-schooling in general. I'm criticizing the tactics of isolation, not the home-schooling.

Re: Need more coffee, apparently

[minstrel70.livejournal.com]

Fortunately, unless one lives in a compound in Montana (Ruby Ridge) or Texas (Waco), it's fairly difficult in modern society to completely isolate one's offspring from the world at large.

Sometimes the attempt to is admirable (I think children could do with a bit less exposure to violence in television and popular music) and sometimes it's wrong.

Like it or not, it's for the family to decide.

This brings up an interesting philosophical question, however: does indoctrination guarantee permanent acceptance of the doctrine, or is there something in the human character that is stronger and leads us eventually to question what we've been told?