“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” ~  Fred Rogers

Did you know that Saturday's synagogue shooting took place in Mr. Rogers' real-life Pittsburgh neighborhood​​​​​​​? 

Fred Rogers also said: Love isn't a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person."

There are a lot of scary things in the news now. Besides looking for the helpers, you and I can help soften and turn around the hate that's growing at an alarming rate in our country. We can help by choosing to "love" everyone. Everyone. Even the haters. Especially the haters. We don't have to feel fondness toward them. We don't have to like them. But we must not add to the hate by hating them. We must strive to treat them with compassion and as we wish to be treated. That's the kind of love Fred Rogers was talking about. Yes, that's the kind of love Jesus taught too. Treating the hate mongers with compassion does not preclude our working passionately toward equal rights, justice, and respect for all people.

While listening to an NPR report yesterday morning, I heard about a man who, for many years, had been the leader in a hate organization. That man now works tirelessly and passionately to build unity and respect among diverse people. What turned him around, he said, was being treated with compassion by the very people he had hated. Love healed his hate.

We can help heal the hate and dis-ease in our country.
 
With opened hearts,
Charlene
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LOVE: It will grow each time you give it away. - from The Twelve Gifts of Birth