What we need to do is ridicule and scorn the attitude - everywhere we find it, whether in the Balkans or Appalachians - that deeds done by those now generations dead should govern how we act today. Hate is not genetic. It's memetic - and it is a chain that can be broken.
We need to acknowledge the problem is there, that hate still lingers in the benighted minds of some and continues to motivate their present-day actions. We can't hush that up or smooth it over - it needs to be publicized, and people need to be educated as to why that attitude is moronic and dangerous.
We've actually come a very long way in terms of making progress against ethnic and race-based hate. We need to strike at its roots. Every person needs to be exposed to the message that a living person is responsible only for what they do - not for what their grandparents and ancestors did.
As long as people dispute that truth in their hearts, violence will keep seeping from history...into life.
We need to acknowledge the problem is there, that hate still lingers in the benighted minds of some and continues to motivate their present-day actions. We can't hush that up or smooth it over - it needs to be publicized, and people need to be educated as to why that attitude is moronic and dangerous.
We've actually come a very long way in terms of making progress against ethnic and race-based hate. We need to strike at its roots. Every person needs to be exposed to the message that a living person is responsible only for what they do - not for what their grandparents and ancestors did.
As long as people dispute that truth in their hearts, violence will keep seeping from history...into life.
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