It’s not about religion. It’s not even about guns or terrorists. It’s about hate. It’s about demeaning words hurled and those dropped as carelessly as a lit cigarette thrown upon the earth. It’s about the voices of those who believe in love, compassion, listening, building bridges, agreeing with respect to disagree, who remain quiet in the media, at their place of worship, schools, workplaces, and when they vote. It’s about lynch mob fear that later sits aghast when they see what they did.

Anthropology has shown whenever we make a person or any form of life an object then we can act freely to enslave, torture, rape, and kill. Remember the Milgram experiment? Normal everyday people volunteered to participate in an research experiment designed to study memory and learning. They were told by very authoritative men in white coats to continue to increase the intensity of the shocks every time the other person gave a wrong answer. When the screams from the one being “shocked” became horrendous, the volunteers began to sweat, squirm and tried to quit. The white coat authority would firmly state, ““Please continue”, “Please go on”, “The experiment requires that you go on”, “It is absolutely essential that you continue”, “You have no other choice, you must go on” And they did.

In Truth, my heart also knows it’s not about religion, guns, terrorists, hate, words spoken or unspoken, fear, or following the mob.  It’s about love. Fearless love.

To my brothers and sisters in the LBGTQ community

Namaste. Shalom.