Links
Christina Rosetti's Presidential Website
Christina Rosetti's Home Page
Spiritual Activism-The Book
US v Bush
A Night to Remember with Patrick Buchanan
One thing that seems clear enough, it is that Hate-crimes do not happen in a vacuum, anymore than sharks can exist in waters without sufficient food. With a psychic atmosphere of hate and intolerance: Hate-Crimes can flourish. And as long as there is sufficient Spiritual ignorance in the world, there will always be the prophets promoting this lack of Spiritual knowledge. One person, who is a well-known television commentator and Presidential candidate, and well-known for his views fomenting a lack of tolerance for others, came to Syracuse for a lecture in 1998. His name is Patrick Buchanan.
Not long after a young man out west had been crucified for being Gay; Patrick Buchanan had been invited to Syracuse to speak. Prior to his speech, I went to speak to Mr. Buchanan, (accompanied by a reporter from the local newspaper), at his book signing engagement. I finally got to speak to him. I introduced myself to him and shook his hand. He seemed quite nervous, but not a bad person. I told him that I was a survivor of a violent Hate-Crime (perpetrated no less by campus police at a Central New York college where I had taught Mathematics). I told Mr. Buchanan that the people who had committed this crime seemed to believe some of the same ideas that he had put forth in his essays. I asked him, if he was troubled by this? He said that he could not answer that question then, but suggested that I bring up the question at his pending lecture.
So I attended his lecture. He was apparently planning to speak about NAFTA and avoid speaking at all about those statements that deranged people could interpret as a call to commit violence. I saw no reason to talk about NAFTA at his lecture during the question/answer period. Some people suggested to me that if he did not want to talk about his well-known bigotry, we should be polite and not say anything about it. My opinion was quite different. I am a polite person, but saying nothing about bigotry to a person who expouses it on an international level; is going too far. If Hitler was speaking, but he only wanted to talk about painting and not the atrocities that he committed; should we respect his wishes; I would say definitely not.
I walked into the lecture hall later and sat down and saw Patrick Buchanan on the stage. He seemed larger than life and very eloquent. The hall was packed with his supporters. Would I be able to confront him in a meaningful way about his rhetoric that seemed so hateful? I felt strongly that this was something to do. Just after he gave his thirty-minute lecture, he opened the lecture up to questions.
I approached the speaker’s microphone and told him that I was a survivor of a Hate-Crime. I told him that I thought that he was a decent person and wondered how a person like him could spew out such hatred. I talked to him about hate-rhetoric could be used by some deranged individuals to justify even the earlier horrendous murder of the young man in the western United States. I also told him that I understood that he was a crusader for religion and thus he knew that when the Jews and Christians were persecuted and used as scapegoats in the Dark Ages, we then all became Jews and Christians. And now that Gays, Lesbians were now the new scapegoats that meant that all of us including Mr. Polk are Gay and Lesbian. Later, I sent a letter to the school newspaper, concerning this. The letter is copied below, with some editing , and was entitled:
A NIGHT TO REMEMBER October 20, 1998 was a Night To Remember. That was the name of one of the first movies about the sinking of the Titanic. Most appropriately, that night was the beginning of the sinking of a dogma or rhetoric of hate and the rise of a more loving way to view the world. On that night, Patrick Buchanan, whose writings are filled with hatred, came to speak at Syracuse University. Many students and non-students alike attended and expressed themselves and their feelings about this cult of hate. For many of us, that night was filled with magic. I was one of the people there who tried to counter the hate expounded by Mr. Buchanan, by showing him that as the decent man he is, he is in contradiction to the hate that he promotes. I tried to show him how his dogma of hate encourages others to violence. At one point, I told him that he was gay and that he was a lesbian. I told him this not to ridicule him, but for him to realize that in a sense, all of us are one with each other and particularly when others, (such as gays and lesbians) are oppressed. I told Pat Buchanan that all of us are God's children and as such must be cherished and respected. And this includes Mr. Buchanan's favorite black sheep, the transgender, lesbian and gay community. I told him that this particular community is so unable to realize that they are so sinful, (as politicians and religious leaders have depicted them), that they have an opportunity to be themselves.
Many of us saw that he was truly affected by the night's events. Mr. Buchanan even offered to have me write to his wife further about this. I believe many people in attendance were forever changed, (even if ever so slightly) in favor of abandoning hate as a method of communication with their fellows.
When we fail to realize our connection to others, it is easy to become paranoid and hate those different than us. All too many of our politicians and religious leaders have taught us how to hate, (as if we really needed that). We must in turn be their professors and teach them about loving one's neighbor. We must not allow ourselves to fall into this trap of hating those who hate us. Not easy to do as I know full well; as I am a survivor of a violent hate-crime myself. But I also realize that we must rise above the hatred. When we hate, we only create more of that which to hate. Hate is powerful, but Love is far more powerful.
We are all in the stage of learning. The event occurring on October 20,1998, was the beginning to understanding and an abandonment of the ways of hate. A beginning, as we enter a New Age of Enlightenment.
Copyright 1998: Christina Rosetti