Hate: Let us all Renounce it

Hate! If my wish were to come true, the hatred some human beings have for other human beings would be swallowed up by the September mist and be taken to a place where it could no longer hurt anymore. The human heart wants nothing to do with hate.

I review my life many times over the course of a year. I see that I have never, never hated anyone in all the years of my existence. Hate doesn’t make any sense! There is no pay-off to hate! It is destructive and will get you into trouble. It will bring depression into your life. It will reflect in the glare of your eye and good people will not want you in their circle of peace and love. I want nothing to do with it.

See below the poem ‘Like the Stars’ I wrote at the request of Alanna Trines (Indigenous Education Lead for the Ottawa Catholic School Board) in recognition of Standing Against Racism Week, March 20 to 24, 2023.

This poem is written as words I would say to individuals who hold hate in their hearts for other human beings because of skin colour and cultural differences, or hate people simply for being the original stewards of the land we live on as is the case with Canada’s Indigenous Peoples.

Like the Stars
by Albert Dumont ©

Like the stars
I am incapable of hate
No matter how the force
Of your actions against my spirit
Wound me
I, as a human being
Could never bring myself to wish
That your culture and identity
Would forever disappear

You hope, through cruelty
To crush the shell of the turtle
Who stands to protect
The medicine
Of my inner fire
Which burns solely
To keep kindness alive
In my human heart

Still, I search
Your soul, for goodness
I see dying embers
And again, I renew my vow
To keep strong my desire
To defend your right
To take your place
In the circle
Of emotional and spiritual wellness
Granted by Creator
Where human beings
Can better themselves

In meditation of your life
I sit, before the great trees
Of my homeland
My thoughts rise
To grip the branches
Of the tallest pines
Where I know the spirits
Of the eagle and the raven
Wait to guide me

I wonder, in the richness
Of pine tree wisdom
How your eyes
Look upon skin colour
And the clothing
Other human beings wear
I wonder how your ears
Absorb languages, not your own
Spoken by people, at the places
Where your children play
Deeply, I wonder
And a tear leaves my eye
An offering
For your bloodline

If only you allowed your heart
To truly know my heart
You would see
That I taste and smell love
As you do
You would see
That the birth waters
Of my mother
Are as sacred as those
Of your mother

You would understand at last
Why I feel
That the caress of the wind
Upon my spirit, is something
Forever impossible
For you to comprehend
As long as you carry hate
In your troubled heart
For other human beings

I feel as one with the spirit
Of the land
Do not despise me for it
Do not try, to empty my sky
Of the eagle’s wings
Give me your hand instead and know
That you and I
Can live as neighbours
Like the stars
Incapable of hate

Keep the Circle Strong,

South Wind (Albert Dumont)