Daniel Lubetzky

A reader recently posted some very angry remarks relishing Armageddon for Israel and/from the Palestinian people…and talking about a rampage and killing and raping of children…

Oddly enough (or perhaps not surprisingly) his reaction was in response to an uplifting post about Barak Obama’s Yes We Can speech and song.

This is the same person that first posted on this blog a reaction to an entry I wrote about Buchannan and Romney.  So we know where he is coming from in terms of a nativist, isolationist, xenophobic view of America and the world.

I was going to delete the posts because the writer did not share his real email address and identity, same which would not be publicized, but which are required in order to post in this site – and in order to ensure personal accountability.  One of the problems of the internet and our world at large is that some times people perceive their anonymity as a license to be inflammatory and incite hatred.

But I opted to display the comments because they are instructive as to the challenges we all need to face.

This is a challenge to all of us.  "Steve"’s own words do the discrediting on their own…but they are no less scary and show us how far we have to go as society to overcome fears and ignorance.

It is a challenge to Israelis and Palestinians to realize how much bigots hate both of them and that if they keep fighting each other, increasingly others will disengage and wish they destroy each other. I hear these comments more frequently than one would imagine. "Let them kill each other."

This is a challenge to "Steve." To recognize the humanity of others, to avoid blanket generalizations and hatred.

It is definitely a challenge to me…to test my own statements about avoiding hatred precisely when it is most tempting and convenient.  When I got these comments, I was really upset.  I "hated" Steve.  Then I took a step back and reflected.  I am not going to bite into the hook of hatred.  I will listen, think, and learn from it.

That said, i do think if Steve@Steve.com is out there reading this, which he will for sure do if I insert the words ‘Pat Buchanan’ because he apparently tracks entries made about him, then in the future if he wants to post an entry he should do so without hiding behind an invented email.