Today's MOZEN: Don't Give in to Hate

F LoBuono

I was scrolling through my Facebook thread, looking for comments and articles of interest, when I came across one that startled me. I try to avoid sensational posts and that includes ones that feature horrific road crashes - just not my thing - when I stopped at one that, for some reason, I just couldn't avoid. It was a photo and accompanying story from the CBS News affiliate in San Francisco (KPIX) of a devastating accident on the approach to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. A truck plowed into the line of cars waiting to pay the toll, causing a massive pile-up that smashed the tool booth to pieces, killing the toll collector. The truck driver and a passenger were critically injured when they were ejected from the vehicle. The scene was just devastating.

Since my brother is a truck driver, I wanted to know more about how this could possibly happen. Because it occurred at approximately 5:30 a..m, I thought that, perhaps, the driver had fallen asleep. I remember from trucking with my brother how difficult the schedule can be and keeping from dozing off is often a challenge. As I delved further into the story, that did not seem to be the case . According to police on the scene, they believed alcohol may have been involved. They were continuing their investigation.

Wanting to see if I could find more information, I decided to check out some of the comments made about the incident.

OMG!

I  could not believe what I was reading!!!

OMG! (yes, I said again because I need to!)

The pure, misguided, vile, ugly, hateful rhetoric was simply astounding!

So many people actually used this horrible accident, where a completely innocent woman was killed, as a forum to air their despicable (and, yes, deplorable) attitudes towards immigration, Sanctuary Cities, and even the city of San Francisco herself. Now, mind you, just to make things even more clear how completely bigoted these people are, there was NO mention anywhere in the news piece that the driver was an immigrant or of ANY ethnic background.

Apparently, these people needed to focus their frustration over a recent court case in San Francisco where a many times deported immigrant was found not guilty of shooting and killing an innocent, young woman.  A jury of his peers, as is our SYSTEM of justice, found it all to be a tragic accident (or, that the State had not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt - I don't know for sure, I was not there). The point is, ultimately, immigration played no part in that courtroom - and, rightly so. The people making these ugly comments thought otherwise.

It was so shocking to me how much pure, unadulterated hate I was reading that I was simply going to write, WE'RE FUCKED.

But, I pulled back and took a deep breath.

It was then that I realized ALL of it is simply us being who we are. We are good. And, we are evil. Once again, the ancient concept of Yin and Yang - a world in balance - must be acknowledged as the ultimate truth.

You may ask, how can you say that with all the deep hatred that seems to be permeating every aspect of our lives? How do we stop it?

And, those, of course, are fair questions that I often ask of myself.

This is my answer: in an effort to make the world a better place I will do everything in my power to reinforce the good that is equally within us over the evil.

For example, acknowledging that for every vicious comment on that thread there was one of either righteous indignation or a gesture of love directed at the family of the woman who was lost is reinforcing the good over the evil.

I also had to remind myself that, if I continued scrolling down the Facebook thread, I would also find other stories of incredible giving and compassion, filled with love and hope.

And, if I'm lucky, cool photos and memes of cats and dogs.

Yes, my friends, Yin and Yang - good and evil - exist together - and do so in equal measure.

This is why I believe that it is so important we do everything in our power to tip the scale in our direction - that of love and compassion - while at the same time acknowledging that evil will always exist along with good, pain with pleasure, cruelty with kindness. It is the way of the world. But, the choice is OURS in which we way we will choose to walk . . .