I think America gets a lot of things wrong. In fact, I sometimes think we gets more things wrong than we get right.
We get the concept of beauty wrong. We get the concept of love and marriage wrong. We often get the concept of freedom wrong.
I’m not sure if this counts as a popular notion, but it’s something that most people in America do that I think is wrong. Fighting hate with hate. I feel like using the term hate is a bit extreme, but that’s the term I’m going use. People only seem to believe in freedom when it benefits them.
Listen, you are not going to change people by telling them that their beliefs are stupid and wrong and yours are right. “Hey, so-and-so hates us, let’s hate them back. That will fix the problem!” Dumbest concept ever.
The most recent example I can think of that deals with something like this is it that stupid Chic-Fil-A disaster. I get so mad when I think about it. I get angry to the point where I stop making sense and my thoughts are just a jumble of incoherent ramblings. So, sorry in advance.
And, before I even start the ramblings, for the record, I’m not siding with either camp.
You say it’s not right for the owner of Chic-Fil-A to speak out against the LGBT community. But you know what, that is his right as a free American to believe and do whatever he wants. So, you don’t agree with him? Fine, that is your right. If he wants to give money to groups who are against LGBTs, that’s his right. Just as it’s your right to support the LGBT community in whatever way you desire. You think he’s committing a hate crime based on his religious beliefs, so you’re going to boycott him, and bash him..because that’ll teach him to not hate. He’s definitely going to see things your way after that. I feel like the owner of Chic-Fil-A was also the victim of a hate crime. People discriminated against him because of his religious beliefs, which to me is the same as discriminating based on sexual preference. As far as I’m concerned supporters of both parties handled things the wrong way. I’m not taking sides in this whole debacle because I think everyone is wrong for the way they acted.
People who I know to be good, kind, Christians became haters, and not the goofy kind of haters we hear rappers sing about. Proudly plastering things like “GOING TO CHIC-FIL-A TODAY!” on your facebook during such a sensitive time was like blatantly telling the LGBT community “HEY, WE HATE YOU!” While I’m fairly certain that’s not what many people were trying to do, given the circumstances, that’s how it came across. And if it came across that way to me, someone who, as a Christian, is predisposition to side with you, think of how it came off to the actual LGBT community. And the people who were proudly plastering “BOYCOTT CHIC-FIL-A!” were basically saying “HEY, WE HATE YOU!” to the Christian and conservative community.
Because we live in America, everyone is entitled to believe whatever they want. Everyone can have their own opinions, it’s part of the joy of being free. People need to remember that while they’re hating each other because they don’t see eye to eye on every issue. The reason we can have conflicting opinions is because we are free. Would you rather we all be forced to believe the same thing? If you start to take away our freedoms…we start to become communists. And I don’t think anybody wants that. So maybe we should try to get along?
This fighting hate with hate thing also sometimes pops up in other countries, too. In things such as wars. “Hey, they don’t believe what we do. Let’s drop some bombs on them, and then they will see things our way.” Yes, I will agree that sometimes war is necessary (um, hello Holocaust), but usually it’s probably not.
Fighting hate with hate is never the way to solve problems. It’s never going to work. It’s only going to create more problems and more bad blood.
[P.s. sorry if none of that makes sense. Like my disclaimer from before, I tend to get worked up about some stuff. And then it tends to become a jumbled mess. I’m not even sure if this blog fits with the topic of the day, but it’s going to have to stay because I’m too worked up about this to come up with anything else.]
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