WHAT'S AFTER WORSE? A guest blog by G. Rogers http://thenewsosphere.wordpress.com

So much hate.  Hate for an opposing political party. Hate for other people online. Hate for women. Hate for people who have a different sexual preference.  Bombing and shooting people. Bombing and shooting children.

Things went from bad to worse. But what's after "worse"? Because that's what it is now.

I read posts and magazine articles, and watch the news, and wonder why the first response to anything now is an attack. People say something totally innocuous, even trying to point out something that might increase understanding. But their comments are immediately shot down, and the person is labeled as a "fascist" or "communist" or worse.

Authors who have nothing but contempt for anyone who doesn't appreciate their beliefs. Wishes of retribution. Wishes to overthrow. Wishes of death.

The welfare of children, and the homeless, and homosexuals, and racial minorities, ignored or attacked solely for the purpose of personal or political gain.

Hate speech. Hate mail. Hate crimes. Hate.

The "twenty-first" in the twenty-first century is just a number. There has been no evolution. No progress.  It seems that in all this time, we have learned nothing.

There are good people. There are great ideas. There is peace, and friendship, and there is love. And then there are people who want to destroy all of those things. And for what? Because they can?

I am tired of all the hate I see and hear. I am tired of man's inhumanity toward man. And women. And children. I am tired of the apathy, the obliviousness, the disregard for people who share the same planet as us all.

But I also want to know why people hate, feel the need to destroy others with their words, their actions, their violence. I want to know why they feel these things still qualify them to be referred to as "human beings". You are given this wonderful gift of life, and all you can do is think of ways to take away the humanity, the soul, even the life of others.

I wish that the people who hate could experience the horror that they inflict. Maybe then they would know what they were doing, maybe then they would feel.

I don't give a damn if you read this, or don't read this, or even share it.  This is only how I feel things are. You have your own ideas, your own way of looking at the world.

But if your ideas are only of hate, I ask you to please ask yourself "why".  I will also tell you a fact that may elude you - like it or not, you occupy the same space as us all. And like it or not, love, understanding, acceptance, and friendship are all that it means to be a human being.

Maybe you should reconsider what you do to others. Because after all the pain you have inflicted, when all is said and done, you will lose. And if you keep hating, you will keep losing, until all that exists of you is a bad joke about a bad joke.

Maybe someday this will be a world without hate. Without fear. Without violence. Maybe someday we will finally have peace.

And when that day finally comes, rest assured, those who hate - You will not be missed.