Love Or Hate

By Tom Rodriguez

We are born Tabula Rasa
Infantile blank slates
That immediately start
To get written upon

Mothers, fathers and grandparents
All begin to fill the empty slate
Pre-school, grade school and high school
The memories grow and expand the slate

Learning begins in the home
Which values will you teach your children
Love and tolerance or
Hate and prejudice

What does it really matter
If someone is Asian, Black, Latino,
or Native American
Aren’t we all the same

What does it matter
If someone is a Baptist, Buddhist,
Catholic, Protestant, Muslim or Jew
Don’t we all pray to one God

Why do Southerners hate Northerners
And Northerners hate Southerners
Why do Republicans hate Democrats
And why do Democrats hate Republicans

Why haven’t they learned 
That anger just keeps hate alive
And why do people have to hate at all
Aren’t we all the children of God

Hate is never an answer to our problems
Lies, deceit and hypocrisy are also not the answers
Anarchy and Insurrection are absolutely not answers
Only truth and compromise will solve our problems

Haters and racists
Will not and cannot
Deceive you or control you
Unless you let them

There is nothing so pointless 
As being afraid
Of people who
Are not worthy of your fear

Does it make any sense at all
To spend our short lives hating 
Knowing we came into the world with nothing
And we will leave it with nothing

We have one world
We have one life
And we are one people
When will we begin to live our lives
As if we know that