It thrives wherever difference is despised, where faith is brandished as a club and a sword, whenever there's no room for compromise or understanding.
It exploits the worst in all of us. It takes nourishment from our doubts, our suspicions, our fears, but it's never sated.
It rarely acknowledges its true identity and often accuses those who would see it destroyed of practicing it in their own right.
Its fingerprints are all over crimes like these, but it also lurks behind accusations like this and sanctimonius garbage like this and it stares blankly out of the inanities in messages like the one described here.
It leaves disaster and ruin in its wake. It's self-perpetuating, self-justifying and more resiliant than a cockroach.
I'm so sick of it. Sick of reading about it and sick of reading it, sick of seeing its droppings on television and on my computer screen, sick of listening to those who practice it devotedly trying to throw it back in the face of those who just want to live and love and go about their business without being pushed or shoved or blown up or mowed down.
It's just a four letter word, but it packs a mean punch. Hate. Let's learn to live without it.
Shabbat Shalom.
