The sad nature of hatred

Ever since the news that a lone gunman had taken the lives of three innocents in Kansas at a Jewish community center, I have been thinking about the reasons behind those tragic deaths. That rabbit hole led me to pondering the nature of human hatred.

The horror of that shooting by a well known panderer of white supremacy, and the absurd Westboro Baptist Church claims to picket here in Alaska against the Alaska Native Heritage Center and a church called ChangePoint, provide clear lessons to the world of collective hatred and bigotry.

Lessons on how such negativity can ultimately consume a person into a blackened, bitter husk of a human being. Lessons we need as a race to learn about and then to grow beyond.

The latter will prove to be hard, but the human race has learned to adapt from similar lessons. Hope is not lost, at least not yet.

Prejudice, racism and bigotry all have a common denominator — hate. Well hatred to be more specific. It is a very human emotion. But in this case, it is a behavior that must be learned.

The natural emotion it comes from is fear. That emotion goes way back to our most primitive ancestors trying to stay alive in hostile environments over millions of years.

In the case of the shooter, he was a founding member of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina. Sometime later he founded the White Patriot Party. This man has had decades of pure hatred drummed into his soul. So much, that it ate him alive to the point of driving to that Jewish community center to shoot three innocent people to death. It consumed him totally. What is left barely qualifies as a human being.

The case of the Westboro Baptist Church with those brightly colored signs saying “God hates Fags” or “Thank God for dead soldiers” during their protests, would be considered demented and absurd if it wasn’t for where they protest – at the funerals of fallen soldiers. At least that is where their claim to infamy got started.

They are dead serious with their particular brand of hatred, using religion as a basis to peddle this trash. Their latest group effort is posting a threat or two to protest here in Alaska. ChangePoint, the Anchorage mega-church, is too lukewarm, according to Westboro’s twisted standards. “They must repent or perish.”

And the Alaska Heritage Center? Well it boils down to the WBC just doesn’t dig our state’s 10,000 years of Alaska Native history and culture.

The WBC claims it speaks for God. I highly doubt it. The God I know about is one who advocates love, mercy and compassion, not hate, judgment and ignorance.

The nature of hatred, as evidenced here, has eluded me. Not so much of how or the history of hate, but more the question of why?

I have seen in some documentaries that many are raised on it from a very young age. I was very disturbed by images of toddlers at a “family picnic” of KKK members in little white hoods and robes in one documentary.

I don’t know how you feel about it, but cute is not how I describe such scenes. Kids should learn about the world around them. They should learn respect for others and their elders. They should be playing games like baseball, not running around in white sheets and hoods learning to hate.

Since the death of WBC patriarch Fred Phelps on March 19, the group’s numbers are dwindling rapidly. I believe they are on the way out. Most of these promises of picketing end up being a bust.

But if they do show up here, try this: Counter protest, by all means. But beware they want to spark a reaction. Don’t give in to it.

Instead, point to their picket line and simply laugh at them. Yes, laugh at them. Make it good, long and loud laughter. It will shrink them down to the tiny size they really are and they will go away, tails tucked between their legs in shame.

As for the more violent people, such as that shooter? Let justice prevail. Let him have his day in court.

And when he is convicted, put him away for life in the darkest prison. Let the moral poison that is hatred, racism and bigotry have its final meal of a blackened soul.

I honestly don’t know if I will ever figure out the whys and the true nature of such hostility toward people of different color, religion, ethnicity and even sexual orientation. It boggles the mind to see the twisting of a faith I hold dear into a hate-filled pretzel.

But I am certain we are all here on this tiny blue planet together, and no one is superior. No religion is superior. No skin color superior. No nation.

Wasilla resident Daniel D. Grota retired from the U.S. Army after more than 21 years of service.