March 15, 2019, Brenton Tarrant of Australia gunned down 50 people and injured 50 others in their place of worship.

For the sake of solidarity with New Zealand, his name will not be mentioned again in this article. The basics of his beliefs will be given for the sake of this opinion piece and he will not be granted more attention than that.

The gunman, pleading not guilty, is accused of carrying out attacks on two mosques (with plans for a third) in Christchurch, New Zealand. The self-proclaimed ethno-nationalist (placing the white race’s prosperity above all others) published an 87-page manifesto entitled “The Great Replacement” where he identified himself as a fascist, a racist and a terrorist.

Explaining why he chose to carry out this attack, he mentions the murder of a young girl by a Muslim man. He also considers Muslims to be “invaders” who intend to wipe out white civilization. He chose firearms to incite division world-wide, specifically in the United States.

He will be given no more attention by The Murray State News.

Assalamu alaykum, peace be upon you.

A common greeting among Muslims, now extended to you, extended to New Zealand and extended to the victims of this heinous act.

Hate is such a unique, terrible construct. We get complacent with the word and throw it around, we jokingly tell our friends we hate them and say we hate certain foods, but never consider the connotation of the word we seemingly say so much.

Peace, though. Peace is something we idolize in this grotesquely superficial way. We have “deep talks” about the wonder the world could be if only we ended this nonsensical division. If only we could love one another.

Man, we sure do talk a big game, don’t we?

We talk a big game and we weep as 100 people are shot, but give it a month. We’ll have moved on like Christchurch was nothing.

Nothing.

And why? Because we are ridiculously comfortable with hate. We are desensitized to it. It’s like a second home to us.

Hatred has always been a prison for us, but it leaves the door wide open. Society is free to leave hate’s grasp at anytime, but our cell has become comfortable. It’s all cushy and cozy. There’s a fireplace, decorated with semi-automatic firearms. The walls are stained red.

So, we don’t want to leave. Society stays in its prison. We throw the word “hate” around like there’s no tomorrow. And eventually, that cell door is going to slam shut. Hate will be all we know.

We as a people seemingly hate everything. Food, clothes, shoes, school, classes, paper, people… We don’t know a life without hatred.

What if we did, though? What if we completely removed the word hate from our vocabulary?

This is what I encourage you to do; discontinue the word “hate.” Retire it, but don’t throw any parties. Let’s give hate a dishonorable discharge, starting right now. Who knows, maybe it’ll change the world.