Choosing Love Over Hate: Radical Acceptance in the Age of Trump

Posted by [email protected] | Jan 28, 2017 | Social Issues | 0 |

George Cassidy Payne

A graduate of the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, George Payne teaches philosophy at Finger Lakes Community College and is the founder of Gandhi Earth Keepers International.

Choosing Love Over Hate: Radical Acceptance in the Age of Trump

I accept and love Donald Trump. I do not accept and love what he says. I do not accept and love what he purports to believe. I do not accept and love his wealth. I do not accept and love his fame. But I accept and love Donald Trump.

What has hate done that is good? If I hate Donald Trump’s words, beliefs, ego, money, and celebrity, it’s because they are all the byproducts of hate. It’s a vicious cycle. Perhaps Dr. King said it best. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” (A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches)

With King’s words in mind, instead of blindly succumbing to the eternal wheels of hate, I choose to accept and love Donald Trump as he is. I choose to accept and love the man that he was born to be. I love the person that the solar system conspired to shape out of the same mud and clay as you and I. I love him as an idea hatched in the fertile crescent of the Maker’s mind. Whether I like the idea or not is irrelevant. Whoever is behind this journey of the universe cares about Trump just as much as it cares about me. Nature cares. Evolution cares. Creation cares. Chaos cares.

Donald Trump is a being on this planet because there is a grace that is more powerful than myself. Who am I to argue with omni-benevolence?

Furthermore, I accept and love Donald Trump for catalyzing millions of people to find their political voice, and to fight for causes that ultimately matter to them. Peaceful relations with other countries. Social justice at home. Fair wages. Equal opportunity. Safe communities. Equitable pay for women. High achieving schools for everyone. Safe and clean infrastructure that adapts to the environment and not against it.

All over the world this man has presented a massive opportunity for people of goodwill to stand up and take action. Because of him they must act courageously, wisely, mercifully, and compassionately in the face of fear, ignorance, vengeance, and selfishness. The gauntlet has been thrown down. Will we rise to the occasion?

So yes, I accept and love Donald Trump not for what he stands for but for what he inspires people to stand against.

In the end, I accept and love him for all the reasons that he may not be able to truly love himself.

SEE ALSO

“45” by Frank Judge

The electoral year in review. Getting Trumped.

About The Author

[email protected]

Welcome to Talker of the Town! My name is David Kramer. I have a Ph.D in English and teach at Keuka College. I am a former and still active Fellow at the Nazareth College Center for Public History and a Storyteller in Residence at the SmallMatters Institute. Over the years, I have taught at Monroe Community College, the Rochester Institute of Technology and St. John Fisher College. I have published numerous Guest Essays, Letters, Book Reviews and Opinion pieces in The New York Times, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Buffalo News, the Rochester Patriot, the Providence Journal, the Providence Business News, the Brown Alumni Magazine, the New London Day, the Boston Herald, the Messenger Post Newspapers, the Wedge, the Empty Closet, the CITY, Lake Affect Magazine and Brighton Connections. My poetry appears in The Criterion: An International Journal in English and Rundenalia and my academic writing in War, Literature and the Arts and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Starting in February 2013, I wrote for three Democratic and Chronicle blogs, "Make City Schools Better," "Unite Rochester," and the "Editorial Board." When my tenure at the D & C ended, I wanted to continue conversations first begun there. And start new ones. So we created this new space, Talker of the Town, where all are invited to join. I don’t like to say these posts are “mine.” Very few of them are the sole product of my sometimes overheated imagination. Instead, I call them partnerships and collaborations. Or as they say in education, “peer group work.” Talker of the Town might better be Talkers of the Town. The blog won’t thrive without your leads, text, pictures, ideas, facebook shares, tweets, comments and criticisms.