"Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love… Our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate the white man, but to win his friendship and understanding. ——— The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy, instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. ——— Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. ——— Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. ——— Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. ——— Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. ——— Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Emanuel Nine knew those words and they practiced them by opening their prayer circle to the hater. He refused their love and chose to slay them in a terrorist act of racism and bigotry. But the families of the nine showed him true compassion by choosing forgiveness over hate. They told him that in spite of his hatred they were going to forgive. And those actions humbled all of us. By those acts of forgiveness they set forth a tide of compassion that went all the way to the statehouse. That is what love can do.
Choose love.
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