People gather outside of Tops market on May 15, 2022 in Buffalo, New York after a gunman motivated by racial hatred opened fire at the store, killing ten people and wounding another three. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Robert Frost is on to something. His poem “Fire and Ice,” from which I’ve culled the lines above, contemplates the end of the world by ice: hatred. But how about a nation? Especially one whose self-proclaimed narrative includes cooperation, collaboration, compassion and plain decency? Can a nation’s citizens hate one another into a civic, social and political paralysis, impaired and indistinguishable by its own acrid juices … the bitter brew of enmity?
Will we work to keep ourselves safe from war or terrorist attack or natural calamity, but succumb to hate? Will we skip pestilence, plague or contagions still only a nightmare under the microscopes of epidemiologists or in the minds of science fiction writers because we simply refuse to stand one another?
Maybe we already have.
Please excuse my negativity in this season of light, but I’ve grown weary of dinners with Nazis, of simple disagreements erupting into threats of violence, of cancel culture and gunfire, of civic discourse a causality of lying liars and the general malaise of menacing.
Case in point is the recent rise in antisemitism, a staple among haters. According to the Anti-Defamation League, “attacks against Jewish institutions, including Jewish community centers and synagogues, were up by 61 percent in 2021, incidents at K-12 schools increased 106 percent, and incidents on college campuses rose 21 percent.” The White House held a meeting of Jewish leaders earlier this month in an attempt to address the growth in antisemitism — expressed both as hate speech and in violent acts.
More numbers tell a similar story. According to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State-San Bernardino, in 15 major U.S. cities incidents of hate-fueled crimes went up slightly. I suppose that would be good news if in the same cities the number hadn’t climbed 30% in the last two years. Brian Levin, the center’s director, said anything but a dramatic decrease needs perspective. “If you’re flat [compared with] the highest year in 20 years, you’re still bad. Any way you slice it, there’s a lot of meanness in the pie.” And a lot of ice, too. Read more
