You Can't Fight Hate With Hate

Yesterday afternoon I received a letter from the 

Southern Poverty Law Center, which is located in Montgomery, Alabama.

Instead of tossing it into the growing pile of weekly junk mail I receive,

I decided to sit down and read their letter.

 This was the same civil rights organization which

 only a few years ago,  had placed Dr. Ben Carson on their

"Extremist Watch List" after remarks he made during an 

interview with FOX News' Sean Hannity, in which he stated that

he believes marriage is between one man and one woman.

Along with his stellar reputation as a world-renown neurosurgeon,

Dr. Carson is a devout Christian and an American patriot.

He has also been a very outspoken critic of the policies

of former President Barack Obama.

During the interview with Fox, he simply stated that,

"Marriage is between a man and a woman. It's a well-established

pillar of society and no group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA

(North American Man/Boy Love Association), be they people

who believe in bestiality-it doesn't matter what they are,

they don't get to change the definition."

However, for expressing his opinion, which is protected under the First

Amendment,  Dr. Carson's name was then added to the SPLC's watch list

of  "Extremists"  After a major public outcry, they later

 removed Dr. Carson's name and apologized, however,

the group still maintains that his views are "extreme".

Since that interview, he has been appointed as the Secretary of Housing

and Urban Development by President Donald Trump.  I can only

 wonder if this faithful servant of both God and mankind is once 
again under the scrutiny of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

 Furthermore, after reading  their letter yesterday, I was duly shocked 

 by the unprecedented level of contempt and disrespect  this  

 civil rights group holds towards President Donald Trump. 

According to the "Personal Reply Memo" the SPLC would like me to

contribute to their organization in order to help them, "...fight back against

the hate and bigotry unleashed by President Trump..."

They claim that since he was elected to the White House,

they have documented, "countless acts of intimidation and harassment"

across the nation, as white supremacists celebrate Trump's victory.

This all stems of course from the fact that during the 2016 election

campaign, the controversial white supremacist and former Grand Wizard

of the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke, publicly endorsed Donald Trump

for president.  According to the letter from the SPLC, Duke allegedly

claimed on Election Night 2016, "This is one of the most exciting

nights of my life. Make no mistake...our people played a huge

role in electing Trump."  

My response here is "So, what?  
Because David Duke came out and publicly endorsed Donald Trump,

this somehow makes the latter an honorary member of the KKK?

The letter goes on with reports that they have seen white supremacists

march under torches while chanting "blood and soil" a well-known

Nazi slogan.  But what about the marches held by "Black Lives Matter"

where people held up signs with the slogan, "immer and uberall"

which translated from German, means, "always and everywhere"?

 Furthermore, what does any of this have to do with Donald Trump?

The letter also states that since the election of President Trump

bullying and other forms of harassment have increased against blacks,

 Hispanics, Muslims, and gays. According to the SPLC, they're dutifully tracking

the "rising tide of hate" under the Trump administration,
 "so he'll have to confront his ugly legacy."  

I find their accusations against President Trump
astonishing, not to mention, beyond ugly.

First Dr. Ben Carson, whom I originally supported during the 

2016 presidential campaign came under fire by this group,
 and now President Donald Trump is being unfairly blamed

 for all the hate crimes committed in America by a group whose

 motto is: "Fighting Hate. Teaching Tolerance. Seeking Justice."

 I identify myself  as a white, middle-aged, evangelical

Christian woman who believes, as Dr. Carson does, that people

cannot change the definition of marriage.  I  also voted for

and support President Trump.  Does this somehow also make
me guilty by association with the perpetrators of the 
 "rising tide of hate" across our nation?

Furthermore, while I would never consider myself a white
supremacist, I refuse to apologize or be ashamed of being a member
of the white or Caucasian race.  I am who God made me to be,
and although I am proud and thankful to be an American, and
of my Italian, German, English, and Cherokee Indian ancestry,
nothing on this earth is more important to me than being
a believer in and a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Yesterday, I was also watching one of my all time favorite movie

musicals on television, "Fiddler On The Roof".  This wonderful story,

set in the time of Czarist Russia, is about the life of a poor Jewish

 milkman named Teyve, his wife, Golde, and their five daughters,

who reside in the rural village of Anatevka in the Ukraine.

Teyve and his family struggle to make a living, while clinging

to the traditions of their Orthodox Jewish faith, despite the
changing social and political climate of the time.

Teyve explains that the Jews have always survived by keeping 

 their traditions, while they share their village with "others"

meaning the local Orthodox Christian community.

Despite the religious differences, the two people groups

in the village seem to maintain a silent tolerance for each other.

 However, when a young man named Perchik arrives in the village 

one day, he warns his fellow Jews that they cannot remain

ignorant of what is happening in the world.  Once a student

at a university, Perchik has become a revolutionary. He also

falls in love with Teyve's second daughter, Hodel, who helps

 break the Orthodox tradition between men and women by

dancing with him on the bank of a creek.

 Later on, at the wedding reception of Tevye and Golde's

oldest daughter, Tzeitel, who also broke with tradition

 by not accepting a marriage arranged for her by her father

  so that she can marry her childhood sweetheart, Motil,

the village tailor, Perchik dares Hodel to dance with him again.

 The idea of couples dancing together catches on, with Teyve dancing

with his wife, and the bride and groom dancing together, but their

new found joy is suddenly interrupted by the appearance of 

 local members of the czarist militia, who attack the reception

by smashing the tables of food and gifts.  As the guests flee in terror,

 Perchik tries to stop some of the goons and is injured in the resulting scuffle.

Then the local constable arrives and breaks up the melee. However, a

pogrom continues throughout the village, with some of the homes of Jews

vandalized and burned by members of the militia.

Near the end of the movie, the same village constable, whom Teyve

 had regarded as a friend, tells the Jews that by order of an edict, they

have three days to sell their homes and possessions and get out of Anatevka.

Shocked by the man's abruptness, Teyve asks him why this must be.

  To which the constable brusquely replies,"I don't know!
  Because there is trouble in the world!"

Teyve realizes that once again his people are being unfairly blamed

for that "trouble" which is actually the result of the hate and

intolerance of others.  He then orders the constable off his land.

The movie ends with Teyve and his family leaving their village

to immigrate to America, where they will live with his wife's relatives.

Leaving Home

Final scene from

 "Fiddler On The Roof"

(1971)

Why is it that I can see striking parallels between the story
of the "Fiddler On the Roof" and what is happening today in America?

Like the Jews of Anatevka in the film,  I believe in
 the importance of maintaining tradition. 

One of the traditions we hold dear in America 
is the right to freedom of speech and expression as
guaranteed under the First Amendment of the
United States Constitution.

Yet, this wonderful freedom is being sorely abused in
our society today.  It seems to me that you are only
guaranteed equal freedom of speech in this country 
 if you are willing to kow tow to the machinations
of the political Left, which controls most of the 
mainstream media in America, including 
social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter.

For example, the letter from the SPLC  reports that African-
American and Muslim children being verbally bullied by
  their white supremacist peers is "especially heartbreaking".
  I agree. I also believe that it is equally devastating when
  a so-called comedian, or some other self-important news pundit,
or Hollywood celebrity in our society thinks he or she can
 publicly abuse and humiliate the children and
grandchildren of a sitting US president with vicious and
demeaning "tweets" and "posts" or terrorize them by
  posting a disgusting picture on the Internet of what
looked like the bloody, severed head of their father and grandfather.
  Whose fighting back against what the SPLC center calls, 
"the mainstreaming of hate" targeting the children
 and grandchildren of Donald Trump?
  It surely isn't them.

In the days of Czarist Russia, it was primarily the newspapers who
reported the atrocities being randomly committed against the Jews.
It was also anti-Semitic propaganda in the media which sought to demonize
 all Jews as radicals and troublemakers, not to mention, "Christ-killers"
in order to stir up fear and hatred in the hearts of their readers.

  Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda,
is credited for the saying, "If a lie is told often enough, people
 will begin to believe it is the truth."  Although this idea is not new,
it apparently worked on the minds of many people in Germany
 who allowed the Nazis to round up their Jewish neighbors
and haul them off to the death camps during WWII.

 Apparently, this same tactic is being used  by the SPLC and groups
like them, who, are deliberately fueling the fire against our president,
with their egregious claims that he alone is solely responsible for 
 the  acts of hate and bigotry committed by others in America today.

One of the greatest gifts God has given to mankind is the
gift of a free will, or the ability to choose between right and wrong.
 And, while many people use their will to do a lot of good in the world,
there are just as many who use theirs to commit acts of evil.

For instance, shortly after September 11, 2001 a gang of
self-righteous, ignorant Americans took it upon themselves to
attack a gas station in my area and beat up the attendant on duty.
They had mistaken the man for being a Muslim.

He was actually a Sikh, who had come to America from India
and had provided great service at his gas station to the people
in the area for many years. Although the man thankfully
survived the attack, he was just one of many people,
because of their race and religion,  who were subjected to
physical assaults and harassment from self-appointed 
vigilantes who blamed them for the terror attacks
just because "they looked different" from themselves.

This attitude should never be tolerated, but unfortunately, 
 unreasonable hate and prejudice will always be found within
  the minds and hearts of unregenerate mankind. 

As the prolific American writer and original pioneer girl on the
prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder once wrote: "There are abuses in the world
today, there have always been. Our job is to face those of our
day and correct them."

The beautiful "Sabbath Prayer" from
 "Fiddler On The Roof"
(1971)