It has been an eventful couple of weeks.
Regardless of where you fit along the political spectrum the culmination of the U.S. presidential election season was unsettling. In many ways I think the campaigns of both sides exemplify a degree of ramped up rhetoric that is increasingly required fare in our society.
Truth, it seems, doesn't matter anymore, especially if thousands 'like' it or 'retweet' it. What matters is if you're willing to repeat your message over and over, louder and louder, with increasing vehemence and a willingness to vilify those who don't agree with you. It's a battle of sound bites, the more outlandish and absurd the better, and in the midst of it all the narrative of our common humanity is obscured to the point where it almost isn't visible anymore.
Somewhere in the middle of all that noise a slogan appeared: Love Trumps Hate. At first glance, especially on a placard of blue and red, it's tempting to dismiss this slogan as witty political wordsmithery, yet I think to do so would be to miss a deeper level.
Just after the U.S. presidential election was over we observed Remembrance Day. I happened to be travelling and found myself in an airport on the 11th day of the 11th month at the 11th hour. In many ways it was one of my most memorable Remembrance Day experiences. I have many memories of cenotaphs, marching bands, cold wind, and rain; of people bundled against the cold and poppies swept up as trembling hands of old and young lay them down. Yet, in Pearson airport a tone sounded and it was like most everyone knew what it meant.
We stood. Held silence. We paused. We remembered them. In one of the busiest airports in Canada you could have heard a pin drop. Phone calls were ended. The promenade was absolutely still. The rouse played. The waiting staff of the restaurant I was in, saluted. Activity resumed. Love Trumps Hate.
The U.S. election. Remembrance Day. Two very different experiences and yet, threads of commonality. For different reasons, especially in light of post-election demonstrations, both experiences call to mind words of Jesus recorded in John's gospel: "I give you a new commandment, love one another." Jack Layton said it this way, "love is better than anger."
Juxtaposed against one another the two events of that week remind me that, in the words of Martin Luther King Jr., "we have before us the glorious opportunity to inject a new dimension of love into the veins of our civilization." Both events were humbling. Both were reminders of how hate can be manipulated. Both caused moments of deep introspection. Both reminded me of our calling to be agents of hope and love in the world. To build up our common humanity in love and to inject that glorious realization into the very veins of the world we live in. Let us love one another seeing beyond our differences, our divides, our colour, race, creed, language, economic reality, gender and orientation. Let us love one another so that the divisiveness of campaigns and the sacrifice of war aren't required anymore.
Let us love one another, so that Love Trumps Hate.
