Christine Flowers: Hatred out in the open from the bottom to top of society

There is a lot of hatred in the world today. That’s not a particularly revelatory or profound statement.

A lot of rock songs have been written with that theme, including one of my favorites, “Get Together,” by the Youngbloods. The chorus is simple, but poetic: “Come on people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together, try to love one another right now.”

Sure, it’s trite. But so is the golden rule, which was written by none other than Jesus, as interpreted by his PR agency, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Ltd. And it has lasted for centuries.

Likewise, for centuries, we have ignored that rule. We like being on “teams” and having enemies.

It’s the way people define themselves, retain power, become famous and pay the bills. I don’t see it disappearing anytime soon.

But for a while, starting from when I was a young girl, it was classless to openly display your bigotry.

People would whisper among themselves about “the others,” and epithets were spoken at cocktail parties and behind closed office doors, but people were savvy enough not to come to work wearing white sheets.

Lately, however, that has changed.

I’ve already talked about the damage being done to our Jewish communities by the blatant antisemitism displayed by anti-Zionists of all stripes, including other Jews who somehow believe that “from the river to the sea” is a cool slogan and not a suicidal chant.

But there are others who have been the target of hatred, and sometimes the attacks come from the highest echelons.

Who can forget our president stating at a debate two years ago that “They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats,” when referring to Haitians?

His vice president doubled down on that claim.

We had a congressman named Randy Fine recently compare Muslims to dogs, and prefer the dogs.

Dogs are great, but this immigration attorney has dealt with some incredibly heroic Muslims, so Randy Fine is clearly … not fine.

As a Catholic who has been vocally critical of Carrie Prejean, one of the worst antisemites of the new crop, I’ve been subject to comments about my hair, justifiably; my looks, regrettably; my morals, how do they know? and my intelligence, as if.

The worst ones are the fellow “Catholics” who were baptized an hour ago and think they know more about the faith than the pope.

The White House depicts our first and only black president and his wife as apes, and then doesn’t even apologize for it.

On a thread about the restoration of the Columbus statue in Delaware, there were a lot of anti-Italian slurs being thrown around.

My very favorites were the one from a chick who said she was “third generation Italian,” and she hated the genocidal maniac.

It’s always a tell in poker when someone says, “I’m an Italian,” because what usually follows is anti-Italian merda. The same goes for the Jews who oppose Israel, Catholics who support abortion, and Republicans who hate the GOP.

Even the dumb blonde jokes are making me feel bad for Megyn Kelly, who is neither really blonde nor actually dumb.

It’s not that these attacks are new. I’ve been called the Catholic Whore of Babylon on at least two social occasions, both with that wry “you know I’m only joking” attitude when I knew they were absolutely serious.

And the joke’s on them, since, as I always make sure to mention, I didn’t even have a date until I was 25.

The problem is that the attacks are in the open, public, and they come from people with influence.

These are not just some anonymous Twitter trolls sliding into your DMs to tell you that you are an old hag who will burn in hell because of your faith.

These are people with prestige, who now feel free to spout their bigotry from the mountaintops. At least before they hid their hatred.

And while in some cases it is good to know how people feel about you, there is something incredibly toxic about a society that has no inner voice saying “shut up, just shut the heck up.”

A local journalist with whom I was not friends, and who was quite vocal about his hostility towards me, passed away. I could have published the comments he’d made.

A few years ago, I would have. I’m a feisty broad and not inclined to kumbaya. But the hatred and the anger in the air have enough fuel, and I’m not interested at this point in providing backup.

Plus, he died. That kind of ends the discussion.

My father, of whom I’ve spoken on many occasions, was a man who had no problem expressing his views on any topic. Teddy expressed those views in some dangerous places, like the segregated South in the late 1960s.

He expressed those views that all men deserved the protection of the laws in front of bigoted white good ole’ boy judges, in courtrooms that reminded you of “To Kill A Mockingbird.”

And this Irish Catholic was joined by black lawyers, and Jewish lawyers, and Italian lawyers and there were priests and rabbis and ministers doing the same thing. They locked arms and walked together.

Today, there is profit in division. We don’t march together anymore. We run at each other, with knives.

As my good friend Felix said to me, “What anti-Semites (or racists) do is judge individuals because they are part of groups that have bad actors.”

He’s right. I’m sick of Carrie Prejean, Randy Fine, President Trump, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Nancy Pelosi, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Adam Kinzinger, and all the rest.

And I’m glad Teddy, may his memory be for a blessing, isn’t here to see it.

Christine Flowers can be reached at cflowers1961@gmail.com.

This column was originally published in the Delco Times.