Words

Words are powerful. Our words can incite hate and rebellion, or invite peace and love, and everything in between.

I hear a lot of discussion about the First Amendment “Right to free Speech” from all sides of the political spectrum. But it seems like almost everyone wants to utter words that incite hate, rather than words that invite love. I hear a lot from people who hate people they don’t know, but not much about people they love.

Social media has inflated this problem. I read with sadness the venom spewed by political zealots, and it seems like almost everyone has become a political zealot. What I have NOT seen is anyone at ALL who says, “Oh, You are right! You have changed my (political) mind.” 

Words of antagonism and hostility can only increase the great divide that already separates us. These words are great bullets, that invite retaliation of greater bullets from the “enemy”.

I’m getting older, and gone are the days of my youth, when I could sit with someone from another political party and have a discussion. I miss that. A LOT.

Hate speech can only harm. It cannot heal. It incites your political side to shouts of agreement, but never, NEVER changes the minds of your political opponents.

So I love prayers. Ministers and chaplains always put away their political biases and pray for “our leaders”, whether they agree with their political views or not.  

And I love my veteran brothers and sisters. We speak powerful words too, but mostly uplifting words of encouragement, love, empathy and peace. We have so much that unites us that we don’t have much time at all for whatever divides us. 

We are family.