The Ignorance of a Nation or a World?

Today I woke with a simple plan to walk to the voting poles to clear my head and take a moment to think over my choices one last time before voting. Most people who know me, know I hate politics with ever fiber of my being. But, I still consider it my duty to walk in to that building every four years and place my vote for the man or woman who will be responsible to make the decisions that will affect this country and affect the lives of all who live here. When I think of all the things that people try to fight over during election years I think I see more ignorance come out in the nation and in the world than in any other time of the year. The things that people hold dearest to their heart tend to come closest to the surface at those times but also the things that people believe in, give time to, give money to, or think may give them some type of advantage some how tend to show more. People don't hide them as much.

Today as my ballot was given to me and I filled in the circles on the ballot I listened to the people around me talking. I heard a conversation next to me about how the world had changed over the years and how this woman's particular neighborhood had changed. The more she talked, the more she proved my point. She began to talk about how she lived in a small community neighborhood that the houses were nice and clean and quiet but then years later another ethnic group started to move in and how the neighborhood changed. She said this as if they were the cause of the problems that then began to happen. The longer the conversation went on the more ignorance I saw.

Why do I feel or see it this way? When I look at the election and see the arguments going on about the race issue, it makes me angry. We as adults have choices. We can choose to hate and we can choose to remember the past and hold on to it and use that energy to hate and hurt ourselves and others, OR we can choose to FORGIVE and move forward. We can teach real love. My niece is a biracial child. I love her with every part of my being. She has taught me more about love than I can ever imagine. It is funny because the only reason I even use the term biracial is to describe which one in the photo above is her. She would say "I am the brown one." But I don't see color. She has continued to teach me not to. Her cousin is very protective of her. If they can live in this type of love why do we have to learn such hate as adults? Who is teaching us such hate that we are choosing to listen to it and hold on to it?