“ I knew as well as I knew anything that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed. A man who takes away another man's freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else's freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity.”Nelson Mandala
My heart is sad to witness bitterness and such vitriol being spoken and sent out into the internet. There has and remains injustice and systems that are broken. Man, by nature tends towards corruption even in the noblest of intentions but we individually and collectively must begin to learn from the past. Let us monitor our words. Can we ever justify what we are spewing out even if we were once on the receiving end of it? Has change ever come about through anger and hate? Love and relationship is the most effective tool. Conversations, breaking bread with our enemies, finding our commonalities.
I look often to Jesus as my model, who does not make distinctions about external differences rather looks to the heart. He who came in a lowly manner to serve and save humanity. He called out inequality in the pharisees yet invites all to partake in learning to love God and one another through relationship with him.
I often fall short of loving but hope to seek to be purposeful in not hating or creating division. And I beg forgiveness where I have explicitly or through complicity allowed injustice to stand and ask those who have been hurt to not hate me but come and talk about it. Let us all invite those we deem as other into our spaces and sow seeds of forgiveness, seeds of belonging, seeds of hope instead of otherness.
by Dale cupo
"You are the bad guy", its they verses we.