My name is Dora; I am a business owner, a teacher, an IMMIGRANT, a naturalized citizen, I contribute to the economy and the well-being of this country. I never was late to pay my taxes or my credit card. I have no criminal record; I don’t even break the speed limit; something that drives my husband crazy. I am an obsessive compulsive rule follower. I respect the law, and I AM ANGRY.
I teach mindfulness, and I tell my students that there is no such a thing as bad emotions. Instead of repressing, it is important to recognize all emotions that we experience, once in full awareness we can decide to act rather than react to our emotions. So I am angry. Prof. Solomon said during his lectures on Philosophy of Emotions that there are circumstances in which NOT getting angry would be the wrong choice. There are situations in life where the RIGHT reaction is anger because anger can push us into action.
Well, here I am acting. I will be totally honest. I am a fiscal conservative, social liberal; I have no real home in any of the parties. I wanted to vote for Jed Bartlett during last year’s election. (Yeah West Wing fan… HUGE fan…)
So I am angry. And we should be angry when we are faced with intolerance and hate. We should not be rolling over in kind; “oh that is their first amendment rights, sweet things…” Oh yes, sure they have the right to say it, but that does not make the behavior OK. It does not make it RIGHT. So it is OK, Mr. President to hate the haters. It is our job, rather it is your job to lead by example, and firmly disapprove of intolerance! I ran out of patience; I ran out of ways to stay peaceful. I filmed the video below at Spira about a year ago. But this is the end of my Peaceful Warrior stage, at a certain point, a warrior is there to fight.
Today I smiled because I thought back to teacher training at Spira four years ago. We had a discussion and meditation on the importance of communication, open exchange of ideas, tolerance, and love of diversity. During one long silent pause, one of my sweet, kind, delicate student Mara shouted out: “F*** the Haters.” This was so out of character there was nothing but silence for a good what seemed forever… Then we all started shouting “F*** the Haters”! Yeah, I know teacher training is full of cathartic moments, then we laughed and cried.
Today, I am angry and amid tears, while watching the news; My response to Mr. President’s comments is: F*** the Haters! I am not a fan of the f-bomb, but sometimes there is just no better way to put it. With all due respect Sir, no you do not tolerate Hate, you hit it back, you expose it in order to transfer it! And Mr. President with all due respect; YOU need to start transferring the Hate.
I immigrated to this country because the United States stood for something good, no no I am not naïve, this country has been home to slavery, to hatred of all kind, but throughout history, it always aimed to be better! We always tried for more, for better, this is the first time when I feel we are not only not trying for better, you Mr. President you want to take a step back. It is a shame, a shame that Republicans lost the party, this is not the party of Lincoln, this is not the party of fiscal conservatives, It is now a party of shame.