Hate! Paper

Alan Tolcher English 101 12-3-06

“Hate” Often, people will say, “‘Hate’ is a strong word.” Webster’s defines hate as “feeling hostility or animosity towards someone” or “intense animosity or dislike.” Webster’s says that hate is synonymous with loath and despise. “Hate” is a strong word because it causes terrible incidents. Hate causes family quarrels, genocide, and violent group formations. Hate is enough to motivate families to be up in arms against each other. In Palestine, two children quarreled at school. This quarrel turned into gun fire between these kids. Three children were injured by live bullets because of the hatred between two people. The next day, the families of these two children became involved in the children’s hatred. They shot fore arms and threw grenades at each other. This one incident of “hate” was strong enough to kill two people and injure six others, including five children. Genocide is driven by the word “hate.” From 1962 to 2005, there has been at least sixteen genocides around the world. In 1962, about 3,500 European and Jewish civilians were killed in Algeria. In 1984, about 4,000 Sikhs were killed in Delhi, India following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In 1988, about 5,000 political prisoners were murdered in Iran, secretly, and were buried in secret places. Just twelve years ago in 1994, a group in Rwanda, called the Hutus, killed 937,000 people from another group called the Tutis. In 1995, 8,000 males Bosnians were killed by the

army of Republika of Srpska in Bosnia. In 2002, just four years ago, up to 2,000 people were killed after the Godhra train burning. In Sudan, three years ago in the year 2003, 400,000 people were killed by their own government’s sponsored militia. Last year in 2005, gunmen opened fire on Garbran children that were on their way to school. All of these incidents were sponsored by the word “hate.” “Hate” can cause people to assemble hate groups and commit violence that is motivated by hate alone. One such group is the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan is a well known hate group in the United States that targets groups of people. It doesn’t matter what the person may be like. The Klan will hate a person for something they were born with. Sometimes they will hate the person enough to commit severe violence upon someone. One such incident was the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. This church was a civil-rights rally point. It was on a Sunday morning, during the church’s youth day, that a bomb went off. There were forty children there that morning. Only four girls were killed out of the forty. The ages these four young women were fifteen, eleven, and two the girls were fourteen. These teens never did anything to the men that set off those bombs. The hate that Klan had for black individuals was enough for them to attempt to kill forty children. Another incident was the lynching of Michael Donald on March 21st, 1981. Two Klan members were upset about a ruling in a case where a black man supposedly killed white policeman. The jury wasn’t able to reach a verdict regarding that case. In retaliation of the ruling, they decided that if a black man could kill a white man and get away with it, then a white man can get away with killing a black man. That night they drove around and stumbled upon Michael Donald. They beat him with a tree limb before they slit his throat and hanged to a tree.

“Hate” is the cause for genocide, family quarreling, and terrible organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan that commit terrible violence. These three things have accounted for many deaths and many tears shed from the families that have suffered because of “hate.” Hate is a very strong word. People aren’t lying when saying, “Hate is such a strong word.” Maybe the next time you use the word “hate”, you’ll maybe consider if you’re using the choice of words.