As a child, I remember learning, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me." This children's rhyme was often used as a way to explain that somebody's thoughts and words are not hurtful. However, as we have witnessed once again, words and rhetoric can not only be hurtful, but they also have the potential to lead to action.

 

In May, at the tail end of the school year, I conducted a series of workshops for a local high school that addressed the idea of hate and what hate can lead to. Throughout this one-hour session, I showed pictures that depicted what hate looks like and shared statistics that illustrate the unprecedented rise of hate towards targeted groups over the last several years. This hate included hate incidents (including hate speech, sentiment, and rhetoric) as well as hate crimes, and what people can do when they see or experience hate.

 

During the presentation, I also shared a graphic created by the ADL called the Pyramid of Hate that clearly articulates where he can lead when it goes unchecked.

I bring this up in this week's column because of the assassination attempt that targeted former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania over the weekend. It's not very often that we witness an act of hate in real-time, or more specifically, how hate manifests itself into a single action that shocks the entire world. In fact, throughout US history, there have only been a handful of assassination attempts on a president - the last I can recall being on March 30, 1981, when then-President Reagan was shot as he exited the Washington Hilton hotel.

 

Over the last number of years, we have witnessed the rise of hate and hateful rhetoric of what I call "the othering" in society. By this, I mean words and messaging that are used to ridicule, demoralize, and dehumanize people who may have different opinions or ideas than we do or who feel they need to be blamed for societal ills.

 

As a society, we need to stop thinking that hate words or speech are not harmful because it is simply untrue. Hate, when espoused over and over again, can and often does infiltrate the mind and thoughts of people and rewires the brain to begin to think that what is being said is true.

 

It is time for all of us to do what we can to help the pendulum swing away from being okay with this increase and acceptance of hate and help move it the other way towards more kindness and acceptance towards everyone, including those we may not always agree with.

 

Michael Jackson wrote in his quintessential song Man in the Mirror, "I'm starting with the man in the mirror. I'm asking him to change his ways. And no message could've been any clearer, if they wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and then make a change."

 

If we don't… if each of us doesn't start looking at our own actions in the mirror and being honest with ourselves about how WE need to be more careful with what we say (or do)—how can we expect our leaders to do the same?