“People all over the world (Sisters and brothers)
Join hands (join, come on)
Start a love train (ride this train, y’all), love train (Come on)
People all over the world (Don’t need no tickets)
Join hands (come on, ride)
Start a love train, love train”
The O’Jays, “Love Train”
Where was that magnificent thought lost? When was it that we all, all around the world, became so self-obsessed that any thought of “love for one’s fellow man” is met with ridicule and derision?
When did the “Love Train” leave the station and the “Hate Train” pull in?
I am very frustrated by the level of discourse, not just in America, but seemingly all around the world. It is not enough to disagree these days, but we must also humiliate and degrade those that disagree with us, lest we, in turn, be humiliated and degraded.
At least that is the way it seems.
If you ask the Republicans, they’ll tell you that the liberals started it. If you ask the Democrats, they’ll tell you that the conservatives started it all.
And so it goes, Arabs and Jews, North and South Koreans, Pakistanis and Indians, on and on and on and on.
What will derail the “Hate Train” and allow us to address issues that divide us without the rancor and flying accusations that not only dominate our rhetoric, but indeed seem to be the entirety of our rhetoric?
I am not so naive as to believe that there have not been significant divides between us in the past, but lately I have been losing hope that there is another track on which we could travel.
We seem to be hurtling down the tracks, riding the “Hate Train” with no brakeman on board and no concern about his absence. Our destination is unknown and what lies on the tracks seems of little concern to most. It seems that the passengers on this train are more interested in fighting with each other than any thought of where the train is headed.
We have become so accustom to the direction that we are traveling that we just can’t see another way.
William Stephenson Clark
PrairiePopulistsAndProgressives.net 