No Hate (In the Rink)

In the year of 2017 we have seen many beautiful things; we saw an amazing eclipse that will not be witnessed for another 4 years, and we have also seen incredible acts of kindness in the midst of distress and disaster (as seen with Hurricane Harvey in Texas). Unfortunately while we have seen immensely kind acts we have seen tragedy; in this year we have seen much hate, much discrimination, and much violence. When will the hate end? Maybe it will never truly end, but maybe it will. Maybe slowly this world is turning and we can finally find hope again. Every so often I get glimmers of hope that humanity is heading in a positive direction (towards the road of love, peace and acceptance), and when I do, I will take that glimpse and I will refuse to let go of the light that it brings into my heart and soul.

One of the many examples of this hope was my own personal experience about a month ago. Now, you see many things in the general public, but nothing brought so much joy into my heart then seeing a man walking into my work on a rainy day buying over a dozen backpacks. I admit, as most people in retail tend to do, I was quick to judge when he asked "Are these 50 percent off? I only want them if they are fifty percent off the sale tags." In my head I thought "Oh no, he is one of those customers." I hate these judgmental thoughts as much as the next person so I made conversation to better understand the individual. Trying to initiate small talk, I asked "Back to school, huh? It goes by so fast." He had began to explain to me that he was donating them to a charity down in Massachusetts. My interest was instantly piqued, and I asked him what the cause was. He explained that this was basically a charity and an after-school program that helped students to get off the streets and have a safe place to go after school in the inner city. I felt so unbelievably remorseful of my judgments and broke down and said that I appreciated his efforts to help such a charity as I have had a younger brother who was living in the inner city. I explained that my brother had moved up from the city (to my residing state of New Hampshire) and he was going to be starting school living with my grandparents, and that it meant the world to me that he was going to be helping a young boy or girl who may be in a similar situation as my brother was. I told the man to take a cart before he left (since he had more backpacks than he could carry) and thanked him again. He had been so kind to hear me out as I spoke of my situation and also so generous with his time and money for this cause. Once the man left, I felt tears slip down my eyes, I felt such thankfulness and love for this individual. He even brought the cart back with a smile. This is the glimmer of hope that I speak of, the glimmer that matters when the world becomes doubtful and clouded with stories upon stories of doom and gloom and people who suffer. The givers are the light that give hope and love to those around them and will help a hopeless soul to experience love and understanding; maybe for the first time.

Going back to my initial statement, a "glimmer of hope" is only a glimmer in a world full of hate. It was weeks later, I began to have my doubts again about where we have been heading since a recent example of hate we have seen all over the news broadcast-ed in our very living rooms; the incident in Charlottesville. We saw people protesting against hate, while others (alleged Neo-Nazi's and White Nationalists) came for different reasons. That light was defected by the fiery rage of hate. Protesters fighting against racism in a community park were injured by the impact of a Dodge Challenger into a line of other vehicles by James Alex Fields, Jr. All of this violence had ensued by protesters of hate gathered in the streets of Charlottesville (In front of Robert E. Lee statue in a community park) as a result of innocent counter-protesters of love and equality standing in the streets, holding hands, and singing "this little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine." No matter the tragedy, those protesters did and still do shine in the darkness, and they always will. The mother of the woman Heather Heyer (Paralegal, Friend, daughter,counter-protestor) says that her daughter's actions will never be forgotten and that she is forever proud of her, while losing her has been devastating (paraphrasing People Magazine.)

This is but one example of the hate we have seen. In this year, we saw many people angry over our election, Womens' rights, and things that yes have been very important. These things are important to fight for, yes. However, somewhere along the way we were so caught up in fighting for "our rights" we forgot the powerful words of Akon "Fight for our right to love." We fight over our bodies, who we love, and what gender we want to be. When will we fight for peace again, for understanding, for what truly matters; which is humanity? If we are going to fight for each other, lets do it with love, not hate.

Another glimmer of hope came in the form of one of the biggest MMA fights in history, which was the fight of Mayweather and Mgreggor; a black man in an Irish man getting in the rink. With all the racial stigma and issues after Charlottesville, I believe this was the biggest breakthrough our country needed. We needed to see the metaphorical challenge of racial controversy fight it out in the fighting arena. In our country billions of dollars were spent to support this huge fight, and in the end it was never a matter of winning or losing. We had two men pour their hearts out through their fist, trying to fight to be the best; McGregor having no previous boxing experience, and Mayweather undefeated. This was a brutal fight, much of a parallel to that of equality within our country. The end result was this, there was no hate in the rink. In the end of a bloody match a black man and Irish man beat each other to a pulp and they hugged each other firmly as brothers. This was the hope our country needed to see. If they can get in the arena where hate stews for the opponent and love prevails, what more is our world capable of? If not that same brotherhood? All of these glimmers give me hope in humanity.