“Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do
not let your heart rejoice” Proverbs
24:17).
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or
boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not
irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but
rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all
things, endures all things.
I
Corinthians
“Ignorance and fanaticism is ever busy and needs feeding.
Always it is feeding and gloating for more.”
Clarence
Darrow
__________________________________
Anyone feeling bad for Amber Glen?
For some, the answer was clear.
No!
We don’t like her values; she’s just queer.
She should have practiced and shut her mouth
Sung the praises of our great leader
And kept silent about brutality and oppression
Anyone worried about the pain and terror inflicted by
ICE?
Anyone upset about lies spoken and laws broken?
No!
Because we won
We owned the libs
We have the power
And we like it
We not only like it, we rejoice.
We delight in the failure of our enemies
We savor their pain
For some it is not that easy. That is not a path we can thoughtlessly take.
We wonder, what do we do with such hate?
With such a disregard for the humanity of others?
When it is our hate and disregard?
It is a disturbing thing to see a profound lack of
compassion
An inability to see the “other” as a person
When others do it, we are appalled
How could they be so uncaring?
Amber Glen, Alex Pretti, Renee Good
Fodder for disdain
The immigrant, snatched from his job,
Just someone who stole a “real” American's job.
Go ICE go
I hope you lose
But what do we do when we are the ones who delight in the
pain of others?
When we experience the thrill of “their” defeat.
That ICE agent, on his ass on the Ice
The person who, outed for racism, has lost their job.
Sometimes it is us, thirsting for the blood of our
enemies
Am I wrong?
We can deflect. We
can say, “Well, they REALLY deserved what they got
They are villains, not victims (unlike us)
And at some level, that might be true.
But is there not something about wishing another ill,
About savoring another’s pain
That is
Just wrong?
When Jesus saw evil, he wept.
When Jesus experienced evil, he forgave.
I am unwilling to give evil a free pass
Some people need to be stopped
They need to fail
I can even desire their defeat
But what I do next is important
I can rejoice that justice is done,
That karma has struck
Does that mean I can erase the person and
simply not care about them? As a person?
How will I think about Donald Trump when justice finally
comes?
If he goes down hard, I will be glad that the evil has
ended
That justice has come
I will think about the immigrants, the young girls
violated
The people he fired, the programs he destroyed, and
I will rejoice that he has fallen from power
I will dance for joy for the planet
But then?
It haunts me, the idea that I will be unable to see him,
And so many others,
As people. Who fear and feel pain.
I wonder,
What do I lose,
when I lose compassion and empathy?
When I gleefully relegate those I despise
To hell (or whatever other punishment I can envision)?
I can justify such a response, can’t I?
Schadenfreude
Especially when I see it as justice
The triumph of good over evil
But still I wonder.
What is lost?
Does a piece of “me” go missing?
I don’t have an answer
God, forgive them
I’m not mad at you
Are you OK?
Still I wonder
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