Lessons from Belle

#1: Actions do not equal people. You can disapprove of their actions without hating the people themselves.

For example, one of my best friends used to be a minor Eco-terrorist. Breaking into constructions sites, wedging potatoes into truck exhaust pipes in hopes of blowing a gasket, painting over land-for-sale signs, and so on. I told my friend I didn't think these things were right and tried to convince him not to keep doing them, but he did. And yet, we're still best friends, because we don't have to approve of everything the other does to be friends.

I think one of the big problems, especially on the Interwebs, is that people look for hate under every rock, and fabricate it when they can't find it, then proceed to work themselves into an indignant fury, and finally create the hate they've been looking for. If people could learn to grasp concept #1 here, I think we'd have taken a big step towards making the world a friendlier place.