justice

Civil Rights for All

/ uurevjeff

As the Boy Scouts considered an historic (and long overdue) elimination of their ban on gay scouts and leaders, the Michigan Department of Civil Rights released its report on LGBT Inclusion Under Michigan Law. The report contains shocking and compelling stories from gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals across Michigan who have faced discrimination in the workplace, schools and housing. The study concludes that there is indisputable evidence of alarming rates of LGBT discrimination in the state and outlines the negative economic impact discrimination has not only on LGBT residents, but also on employers and students in Michigan.

Whatever your personal opinion about sexual orientation and gender identity, legalized discrimination against LGBT individuals must end. Just as we did with women and then people of color, we have learned that discrimination against people on the basis of who they love has no foundation in science, law or morality. Discrimination against gays and lesbians is unjust and should be made illegal.

The Report called for the expansion of laws that protect people from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity/expression in employment, housing, and the full and equal utilization of public accommodations, public service and educational facilities. The current nondiscrimination clause used by the City of Midland Human Resources Department “considers all applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, handicap or disability, or status as a Vietnam-era or special disabled veteran in accordance with federal law.” I call on our city officials to be proactive and take the steps needed to add “sexual orientation and gender identity/expression” to its nondiscrimination clauses for hiring, for contracts, or for any other public use.

Let’s join other progressive communities in Michigan, like our neighbors in Mount Pleasant, and support this action.

Get in the Game!

/ uurevjeff / 1 Comment

Recently, I have found myself at odds with my dear mother’s teachings.  All my life, she instructed me that if I couldn’t say something nice about someone, not to say anything at all.  Well, Mom, wherever you are, I’m sorry.

After fighting against the outrageous assault on reproductive freedom taking place here in Michigan for the last few months, I didn’t think I could get angrier.  I was wrong.  The recent comments by Rep. Todd Akin and others like him who emerge from under similar rocks have left me beyond furious this week.  The brainless and unwarranted dogmatism of these elected officials staggers the active mind.  I simply cannot comprehend the mindset of a nation that condones murdering children in other lands for oil, despoiling the earth our children must live in despite overwhelming evidence to its impact, increasing easy access to mass killing weapons that daily steal us of our loved ones – but – willing to trample our most intimate privacy and every woman’s right to self-determination and medical care, all to protect a blob of cells that happen to possess human DNA and absolutely no evidence of anything resembling human personhood.

Men!  Football season has arrived and it is time for you to get off the bench and into the game!  Rise up in solidarity with your sisters and daughters facing this reactionary siege of anti-intellectualism and hatred.  Stand with your wives and mothers whose most sacred rights are being raped by hypocrites who have sold our representative democracy to stuff their off-shore banks accounts with the billions of a handful of hyper-wealthy extremists.  Ally yourselves with all women – your elders and children, your neighbors and friends, your sexual partners – being shackled by modern-day moral slavers whose insecurity regarding the power of women, their minds and their spiritual strength turns them into single-minded assassins of the very freedoms and democracy they were elected to defend and the well-being of our country.

Tell these uneducated morons that they are wrong.  Tell these zealots that their personal religious views must be checked at the door when they represent us in our government.  Tell these partisan robots that you will vote them out in November and elect people who will listen to the voices of women.  Tell these theocrats that they are not “pro-life;” they are anti-woman, anti-family, and anti-freedom,

The Larger War

/ uurevjeff / 3 Comments

After attending the Michigan Women’s Power Assembly event today in Lansing, I have reached a conclusion. The “War on Women” is just one campaign of an even larger, and if possible, even scarier war.

While standing in the House gallery speaking to a young woman, a man came by and shoved her aside as he walked by (there was plenty of room to pass us without any contact). She rebuked him for putting his hands on her to which his companion replied that she should get out of the way. When I challenged them about their rudeness, these two brave patriots keep walking away.
Later, I spoke to a woman in a wheel chair from a group called Mothers of Lost Children. Her abusive ex-husband had broken her back and then somehow managed to convince a judge to obtain custody of the children. Another woman told me that her ex-husband artificially inseminated her against her will when she threatened to divorce him, in an attempt to trap her in the marriage.
The more stories I hear, the more incredulous I become about the state of our nation. I cannot even begin to fathom how women today keep their sanity living in this hostile and misogynistic society. And yet, I have decided that the War on Women is, in fact, just one large campaign that is part of an even larger, more insidious war against the soul of the American people.
  • Government officials routinely raid undocumented immigrants’ homes, whisking parents away from children in the dead of night. They receive no due process, and are treated like animals for years before eventually being deported. 
  • Loving adults who happen to be of the same sex still cannot marry in most places, and face thousands of disciminatory and often heartless laws. 
  • Millions of hard-working Americans cannot find work that pay a living wage, while the 1% continue to export jobs overseas with inpugnity. 
  • The Emergency Management Law in Michigan has single-handledly wiped out representative democracy for most African Americans in the state. Across the nation, voter restriction efforts target the poor, the elderly, and other oppressed minorities. 
  • Politicians are hell-bent to ensure that tens of millions of Americans receive no health care insurance. 
  • The obsession over fetal life consumes the majority of legislative agendas, while these same politicians cut public school funding, work to wipe out family planning resources, and continue to support capital punishment, the American war machine, torture, and unlimited access to guns. 
We are facing a war against decency, a war against dignity, a war against our core liberty. In summary, we are defending ourselves from a War Against Love.

The antagonists in the War Against Love lie without shame, abuse without remorse, rationalize any moral indiscretion, and steal in the name of justice. Their agenda is the total submission of the American population, using the full might of our increasingly paramilitary police forces to crush even the most peaceful and law-abiding opposition with tactics of humiliation and violence. These forces have unlimited funds because our highest court has given corporations the rights of people without any of the responsibilities. And like unruly children with absentee parents, they are taking full advantage of the situation.

This blitzkrieg seeks to pick us off one at a time, just like every other brute horde throughout history. Immigrants, gays and lesbians, the poor, labor unions, racial minorities, religious minorities, women, the elderly – one by one, they seek to isolate us, set us against each other, and conquer us. And with each battle, America loses one more shred of civility, of compassion, of its vision as the land of the free and the home of the brave.

America, please wake up! If you are sitting at your computer reading this in the comfort of your home thinking these issues don’t affect you, then you are deluding yourself. You are your brother’s and sister’s keeper. As Jacob Marley said in Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” 

“The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

If You Can’t Say It, Don’t Legislate It

/ uurevjeff

So now Ari Adler, spokesperson for Michigan House Speaker Jase Bolger, has this to say about the muzzling of Representative Lisa Brown.  “It has nothing to do with her using the word ‘vagina.’  It was judgement at the time that when she finished her statement by referencing her vagina, and then saying ‘no means no,’ that was drawing a rape reference and he felt that crossed the line.”

Then, Adler said Brown was punished because she “threw a temper tantrum on the House floor.”  If you support Rep. Bolger and Stamas’s censoring of Rep. Lisa Brown, then consider this.  The sure outcome (if not the intent) of this omnibus of bills will be to make obtaining an abortion in Michigan next to impossible.  Now imagine that your 12-year-old daughter is raped and as a result of this traumatic assault becomes pregnant.  If you as her parent think it is in her best interest to get an abortion, and you tell her so, you have just committed a crime.  Whatever your reasoning as her parent, you are guilty of coercing a woman to get an abortion.

By banning accepted telemedicine practices for medical abortions, these bills make obtaining an abortion to victims of rape in rural area much more difficult and expensive, if not impossible.  And, even if the women can obtain an abortion, she now has to treat the remains of this violence against her as a human corpse – she must obtain a death certificate and obtain either burial, cremation or interment.  I cannot even begin to imagine inflicting such agony on a victim of rape.

Even if you consider yourself “pro-life,” Rep Brown’s comments are completely relevant and important.  HB 5711, 5712 and 5713 punish the victims of rape and incest in cruel and inhumane ways.  And the blatant ignoring of the voices of women in the process of forwarding these bills from the Committee on Health Policy is yet another form of rape – men’s abuse of their power in order to take away the voices and freedoms of women.

In her speech on the capitol steps last night, playwright Eve Ensler offered a list of things she is “over.”  I agree and add my own.

  • I am over hypocrites who pretend to care about the welfare of the unborn, whose only real interest is overcompensating for their feelings of inadequacy when facing women’s sexuality and power.
  • I am over people who claim to be “pro-life,” but support war and capital punishment, fail to support family planning and comprehensive sex education, and actively work against funding for public schools, poverty, gun control and all of the most important threats to quality human life.
  • I am over our collectively ignoring the important and powerful stories of women affected by this debate.  Men should feel privileged simply to be allowed to be part of the discussion.
  • I am over men failing to take responsibility for their actions, and instead forcing women to bear the burden of our uncontrolled search for gratification through power, control, violence, and sexual release.
  • And I am over rape.

Mr. Adler and Reps. Bolger and Stamas, if you think Lisa’s calm and impassioned statement was a temper tantrum, wait until you hear the voices of millions of women and the men who love them at the polls.

The Coming Theocracy

/ uurevjeff

I have worried about the state of this nation for a long time now.  Today, we took another step toward eroding the separation of church and state as the Michigan House of Representatives passed the first of several anti-abortion bills clearly aimed at forcing a narrow religious interpretation of personhood on all citizens.

House Bill 5711 is primarily concerned with how abortion providers are regulated and with the disposition of organic material following fetal death, whether by abortion, or natural causes.  Both initiative make abortion tremendously more expensive, which will in effect chase OB/GYN’s out of the state and place an undue burden on women across the state seeking abortions.

During the debate on the House floor, Representative Lisa Brown (D-West Bloomfield) made several eloquent points.  One in particular dealt with her Jewish faith.  She pointed out that Jewish law mandates that therapeutic abortions needed to protect the life of the mother are not only recommended, but mandated.  Therefore, the bills under consideration would criminalize women obeying the dictates of their faith.
Of course, this only one specific example. What about the thousands of women out there who do not belong to an organized religion, or whose personal spirituality does not consider the fertilized egg as a person, with all of the rights of a fully formed human being? According to these bills, too bad.  Michigan legislators have declared that they possess the absolute truth on when human personhood begins.  These legislators not only feel that they know better than doctors or women themselves what is medically best for women, but they feel that they know better than clergy of all faiths what the law of the land should be regarding the unborn.
I try not to throw the word “Fascist” around lightly.  But this is how totalitarianism begins.  When the State can establish laws beyond its bounds unchecked, without even following its own rules of discourse and public input, then you are already on the road to tyranny.
Ironically, there is no scriptural support for this view of human personhood.  If anything, the Bible gives little regard to the fetus.  Jesus did teach us, however, to be merciful in a number of ways.  Feed the hungry; give drink to the thirsty; shelter the homeless; clothe the naked; visit and ransom the captive, (prisoners); instruct the uninformed; bear wrongs patiently; forgive offenses willingly; and comfort the afflicted, among others.  If you consider yourself a Christian, how about if we work on these?  Where are the bills to reduce poverty, create jobs, reform our criminal justice system, support public schools (especially comprehensive sex education), and provide family planning and support services for women who are victims of male violence?  House Bills 5711, 5712, and 5713 are anything but merciful, and they pave the way for the coming theocracy unless we stand up in united opposition to this intrusion into our freedoms and democracy.

A Joyful Noise

/ uurevjeff / 2 Comments

I’m just back from Lansing, where I joined several hundred people sending the message to the Michigan House of Representatives that government should not regulate our bodies and our medical choices.  When the time came to enter the legislative chamber, the stairs were clogged with pink-shirted advocates anxious to watch the proceedings as the representatives considered House bills 5711, 5712, and 5713, the omnibus package of anti-abortion laws.

The gallery must have filled, and many of us could not get in.  After 20 minutes or so, many people wandered around in the rotunda area on the second and third floors.  Soon, at least one hundred people, mostly young women, ringed the circular railings looking out into the open space.

Soon, clapping began and a rhythmic pounding of the handrails.  Then, with vibrant energy and the persistent pounding, the voices sprang into a unison chant of “This is My House,” which carried on for at least five minutes without letting up.  Then another chant began, “My Body, My Choice.”  The relentless pounding continued and people emerged from offices to snap pictures with cell phones. 

Ten minutes passed and another chant, “We’ll Remember in November.”  The noise continued, never abating in intensity or volume.  Fifteen. then twenty minutes.  At first, I stood back watching the police to make sure that the disruption was not going to cause a violent reaction by security personnel.  But, it soon became clear that they had no intention of stopping the force of these voices.

Twenty-five minutes, then thirty and no let up.  By now I had joined in with “This is What Democracy Looks Like.”  I imagined that peoples’ hands must be getting numb by now, but they just kept going.

I found myself unable to stop smiling.  Feeling the amazing energy and passion of all these folk was a spiritual experience.

Whatever the politicians eventually end up doing, I hope so strongly that this joyful noise spreads across the state and across the country so that no amount of money and power can drown it out.

Emotions

/ uurevjeff / 3 Comments

I had a curious exchange after testifying before the House Health Policy Committee last Thursday.  A gentleman approached me (I believe one of the Congressmen who supported the anti-abortion omnibus of bills) and warned me about the anger I was expressing.  His tone was not reproachful but almost cautionary, as if he was more worried about me than others who might perceive my anger.

The conversation made me think about what emotions I was indeed feeling, and continue to feel days later.  I suppose he was right, that Rage is my primary emotion on this issue.  Rage at the disproportionate concern being expressed for the unformed unborn over the needs of existing children – hungry, homeless, undereducated, unwanted and unloved; over the physical, mental and spiritual health of pregnant women whose most private and personal selves are being violated largely by rich White men with a moral agenda; and over the ethical health of a society with no qualms about murdering innocent children overseas in our wars of conquest, murdering our environment for financial gain, and murdering the basic tenets of democracy and freedom through tyrannical law-making, fiscal slavery, hate and fear-mongering.

I also feel intense Sorrow.  I grieve for the countless women whose stories are going unheard, whose opinions are dismissed because they don’t support the narrow theology of conservative lawmakers.  I am deeply saddened that every woman in our world still lives in abject fear of the violence of men, and the imposed will of men over their bodies.  I mourn the broad lack of compassion among my fellow men for our sisters, our wives and partners, our mothers and daughters.  And yes, I do feel sorrow that abortion must exist as an option at all.  But, the fact is that abortion has always and will always exist for certain circumstances, and so long as governments try to legislate morality and religious belief.

Confusion.  I remain mystified by the so-called “pro-life” position.  Listening to their rhetoric, the only logical conclusion is that their first and foremost objective is not the preservation of life, but the control and regulation of women’s reproductive organs and their lives as sexual beings.  If you truly believe that human “life” begins at conception, then wouldn’t you want to eliminate all unwanted pregnancies?  Then why would you not support mandatory sex education, the widespread availability of affordable birth control, extreme penalties for sexual violence against women, and the elimination of objectifying stereotypes that portray women as merely sex objects for the gratification of men?  If you truly value all human “life” then you must certainly oppose capital punishment.  You must certainly want society to impose more controls on handguns, whose primary purpose is shooting people.  And you must be a pacifist.  Unfortunately, I have met few “pro-life” individuals who also hold these other positions.

I am Afraid.  Yes, I am a minister.  Being a public figure is part of the job and I accept that responsibility willingly.  That doesn’t make things any easier when a politician uses his position to berate me after misinterpreting my words and twisting their meaning.  That doesn’t make things any easier when I see how people justify violence against others by their selective application of religious creeds and the permission they feel divinely derived.  And while the many martyrs to the causes of freedom and justice are my heroes, that does not mean that I necessarily wish to join their ranks.

But I am also Hopeful.  I have a vision of a future society where reason and conscience prevails.  I see a time when the measure of a person’s success is not the acquisition of money and possessions, but the good deeds they perform.  I know that others share this vision and the desire to make it come about.  So I am not Lonely.  I am Committed.

The War on Women Comes to Michigan

/ uurevjeff / 10 Comments

This morning, I drove to Lansing in the hopes of speaking in opposition to an anti-abortion omnibus of bills that are being rushed through the Michgian House.  They are House Bills 5711, 5712, and 5713, and Planned Parenthood is calling them “the biggest assault on women’s health in our state’s history.”

The House Health Policy Committee met this morning to hear testimony and vote on recommending the bills for consideration by the House.  After the three sponsors’ voices were heard, only three supporters and three opponents were allowed to speak (in spite of the fact that many dozens of others came to speak against the bills).  I was privileged to be selected as one of the speakers and I hope I did justice for my sister allies across the state.  Here is the text of my comments.
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As a person of faith, I strongly oppose the proposed legislation for several reasons. There is no evidence to support the assertion that human personhood beginsat conception or even in the first trimester. Until the unborn child loses its prehensile tail and displays independent mental capacity, it is merely a potential human being. Until that time, the decision to continue or discontinue the pregnancy should lie with the mother who, in the end, is the person most affected by the decision, morally and medically.

At a time when millions of unwanted children are hungry and unable to get proper medical care, when millions of families are joining the ranks of the homeless while bankers profit off their misery, while we murder innocent children in endless wars in foreign lands while laying off teachers and closing schools, you have far more important work to do than further oppressing women and their doctors from making informed choices in the best interests of the woman.

And, to require a woman who is the victim of rape or incest to carry to term the enduring burden of that heinous violence is nothing short of cruel and abusive behavior. I cannot even begin to imagine how it feels for a stranger – or even worse, a trusted relative – to violate my most private and personal core being; and then to be prevented by my elected officials from getting the medical treatment I want from physicians willing to provide it? I cannot even begin to imagine the feeling of that invasion for nine long months, all the time risking my health and increasing my lifelong risk of a myriad of diseases? If you justify this proposed legislation on religious beliefs, only a convoluted interpretation of the scriptures of any religion would ascribe such a scenario as desirable by a loving god.

Until you pass laws making birth control widely available and comprehensive sex education mandatory, you have no moral right to legislate the consequences of their absence. If you truly care about children, then feed the boys and girls we already have. Give them the medical care they deserve. Provide them with schools and education so that they don’t ever need to make the decision regarding terminating a pregnancy. Find jobs for their parents, so their families can stay healthy and strong.

People of faith stand on the side of love. And loving means giving people the resources and the opportunity to make their own informed choices, not imposing government-sanctioned moral codes. People who believe that a fertilized egg has a soul have the option to reject abortion. Every woman deserves the opportunity to make that choice based on her own personal theology. This proposed legislation is a violation of our time-honored separation of church and state and I urge you to reject its continuation.
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On of the legislators asked if I opposed the provisions of the bills supposedly aimed at improving the quality of women’s health care provider sites.  I replied that safe and high quality abortion services should be available to all women in the state, regardless of where they live, their economic status, or color.  Another followed up, asking me if I thought his tax dollars should be allowed to pay for something he was morally opposed to.  I responded that my tax dollars are paying for murder in Afghanistan. 

Of course, in the end, supporters of the bills had more than enough support, and they will go before the House soon.  The War on Women has opened a new front in Michigan and the battle will be quickly lost if we do not mobilize quickly.

Atheist Ministers

/ uurevjeff / 5 Comments

Recently, the story of Teresa MacBain – the United Methodist minister who “came out” as an atheist at the American Atheists Conference in March 2012 – went viral.  Welcome to the fold, Teresa.  As a fellow member of this very small association, let me offer some advice as you face your new life.

In the coming weeks and months, your relationship with the people around you will change drastically.  You will be ignored, shunned, and hated, sometimes by people you considered colleagues, friends, even loved ones.  You will hold out a hand only to have people turn away.  You will be pitied, almost like an unfortunate object incapable of both rational thought and compassion.  But, you will find not only allies, but legions of people out there desperately searching for the spiritual guidance that you can offer.

Once the excitement surrounding your announcement subsides, you may find yourself feeling very alone.  And, in a sense, you are doubly alone.  You will lose not only many people in your life, but you have also lost the enormous comfort that a belief in a supernatural father provides.  You will grieve these losses.  But, you have obviously felt this calling for a long time.  Our journey is rarely a flash of light on the road to Damascus.  The path of the atheist minister is not for the faint of heart.  You will have little support and your beliefs will be questioned every day.

Every time you meet a new person, you will be calculating what words to use when the topic eventually arises.  You will hear every stereotype.  And you will learn that we are the least trusted minority in this country.

But, you have tools that most people think are not available to us.  The articles about you all talk about how you “lost your faith” or how you “lost your belief.”  These are inaccurate portrayals.  The only thing you have lost is the delusion that the mythology of god provides answers to anything beyond our primitive fears of death, long winters, lightning, and monsters in the night.  You have only lost a narrative, not your faith.  You have only lost one story, not your beliefs.

In fact, I believe atheist ministers possess more faith and belief than any of our colleagues.  We have more faith and belief because these things are not handed to us for the small price of the suspension of our critical thinking and our innate curiosity and exploring spirit.  When we decide to walk the path of Jesus, Buddha, Lao Tse, Gandhi, or Martin Luther King, Jr., we do it having analyzed their teachings intellectually, reflected on their deeds emotionally, and experienced their lives spiritually.

For they were the true prophets, whatever cosmology lay behind their belief systems or whatever shape they viewed the awe and mystery of all existence. They taught that Love is the only force in the universe that should drive the construction of our laws and the design of our societies. They taught that the only fulfilling way to live was with justice, acceptance, and equality.  They taught that morality is not proclaimed from above, but must be found within each of us.

The atheist minister has faith that humanity will someday accept this message.  The atheist minister believes in the beloved community, a world with peace, social justice, economic fairness, and freedom.  The atheist minister knows that someday, we will build a world in which every child is fed, everyone has a home, all illness is treated, and each person is free to pursue their path in life and proclaim their own identity.

As John Lennon sang, “you may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.  I hope some day you’ll join us and the world will live as one.”  Welcome, Teresa, to the covenant of dreamers.

Redefining Modern Anarchism

/ uurevjeff / 4 Comments

At recent Occupy the Tri General Assemblies, we held some passionate discussions about a logo and the subject of a clenched fist arose (similar to that used by the New York OWS group).  Some felt the power of the symbol reflected our frustration with the way things are and represented our resolve to fight for change.  Others were concerned that the symbol failed to reflect our primary commitment to nonviolence.

We eventually agreed on a design that I believe reflects our most important guiding principle – our need to love for and care about each other on a deep primal level.  Even this wonderful design presents a challenge.  The design continues to incorporate traditional symbols of resistance and peace.  But the centerpiece shows us joining together, devoted to a more loving world. 

We live in a society where branding is deeply ingrained behavior.  We all know golden arches, and sneaker swirls.  We tend to know corporate symbols better than even basic rules of language and etiquette.  So it will take time for our new logo to catch on with the public.  It will definitely take time for our principles of love and nonviolence to capture the public spirit.

Similarly, I have been reconsidering another traditional symbol of resistance and revolution, the anarchist Circle A.  This symbol is certainly not as widely known as countless others in our society, and this particular symbol has been used in wildly different contexts and for differing purposes.  I imagine for a lot of people, the Circle A represents  violent bombers or punk rockers, carrying a heavily negative connotation.

But, I believe it time to revisit this historical association of the symbol with the violent overthrow of governments.  Gandhi, perhaps humankind’s leading proponent of nonviolence and proponent of the overthrow of oppressive order once wrote:

“The ideally non-violent state will be an ordered anarchy. That State is the best governed which is governed the least.”

Anarchy India has an excellent blog posting on how Gandhi’s vision of anarchy would be applied.  Gandhi felt that the State represents violence in a concentrated and organised form – a soulless machine that can never be weaned from the violence to which it owes its existence.  Is Gandhi’s ideal of a non-violent state of enlightened anarchy where social life would remain self-regulated a pipe dream – an impossible utopia?  I have no idea who said it first, but many noteworthy people have expressed the sentiment.

“The impossible is what nobody can do until somebody does”

So, while I know the Circle-A symbol has some well-deserved baggage (perhaps no more or less than many other commonly accepted images), I think it has value and deserves to be reclaimed.  The anarchy symbol is a direct and obvious statement that an existing order is dysfunctional and must be replaced.  For those of you who are into the origins of words, the word “anarchy” comes from the ancient Greek ἀναρχία, anarchia, meaning “absence of a leader.”  Well, isn’t that at the heart of the Occupy Wall Street movement?

Anarchy can be nonviolent.  Society can exist with laws but without corrupt government.  It will not be easy – in fact it may be very nearly impossible – but we can build a human society based on love.  We’ve spent millennia building one based on fear and hate, so how hard can it be if we put the same energy into positive emotions?