What is HATE.
by Dawn Garcia
HATE. A word that just makes you feel dirty. Ashamed. A society living in a veil of confusion and fear using their own prejudice to alienate and isolate. The only thing we need in this world is one thing. Just one: LOVE. There is a song that is now playing loudly all over the airwaves by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis featuring Mary Lambert. The lyrics are impossible to tune out because the truth that pierces through every spoken word is the most honest profoundly necessary truth this world is hungry for. As a woman with the continual consciousness that rights in this country are being stripped away one at a time as the religious and political agenda forces its way into a world it has no place for, I welcome equality like most welcome H2o. What we crave, what we need? Justice. Acceptance. Unity. And while the world we live in runs and hides from this it doesn’t make it any less essential. Love is the most unifying characteristic any one of us possess. I implore you to put aside your religion. Close your eyes to politics and for once, see the human being before you. No color. No sexual preference. Just a fellow member of your species. Your innate goal should be to want to see them happy. And while that isn’t the reality in which we dwell, there is absolutely no reason it can’t be the new reality.
The Power of One is a term that transcends logic. It supersedes the normalcy and bull**** we are growing all too accustomed to. We have to be better than that. Our job is to tap into the humanity. No more excuses. And so today, I want to thank Macklemore for having the balls to write a song that literally sifts through the soul with so much raw purity, it needs no explanation.
Love is meant to be beautiful. It’s not meant to be a secret. It’s not meant to hide in the shadows or be shamed. It’s meant to make you soar. Give you courage. Strengthen your soul. Know that at the end of every day the hand that reaches out to hold yours loses itself in your grip. LOVE is encompassing. For every one of you who open your heart to the truly enthralling embrace of those who give you their heart and you giving them yours, I – Love. You. You teach me what it all means. And for that, I thank you. YOU – you make me believe. No blurred lines. No restriction. No injustice. Just a voice that must sound. XO. MARRIAGE EQUALITY. (Please continue to scroll down after the video for more…)
“Same Love” by Macklemore
(with Ryan Lewis)
(feat. Mary Lambert)
‘Cause I could draw, my uncle was, and I kept my room straight.
I told my mom, tears rushing down my face
She’s like “Ben you’ve loved girls since before pre-k, trippin’ ”
Yeah, I guess she had a point, didn’t she?
Bunch of stereotypes all in my head.
I remember doing the math like, “Yeah, I’m good at little league”
A preconceived idea of what it all meant
For those that liked the same sex
Had the characteristics
The right wing conservatives think it’s a decision
And you can be cured with some treatment and religion
Man-made rewiring of a predisposition
Playing God, aw nah here we go
America the brave still fears what we don’t know
And God loves all his children, is somehow forgotten
But we paraphrase a book written thirty-five-hundred years ago
I don’t knowAnd I can’t change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
And I can’t change
Even if I try
Even if I wanted to
My love
My love
My love
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warmIf I was gay, I would think hip-hop hates me
Have you read the YouTube comments lately?
“Man, that’s gay” gets dropped on the daily
We become so numb to what we’re saying
A culture founded from oppression
Yet we don’t have acceptance for ’em
Call each other faggots behind the keys of a message board
A word rooted in hate, yet our genre still ignores it
Gay is synonymous with the lesser
It’s the same hate that’s caused wars from religion
Gender to skin color, the complexion of your pigment
The same fight that led people to walk outs and sit ins
It’s human rights for everybody, there is no difference!
Live on and be yourself
When I was at church they taught me something else
If you preach hate at the service those words aren’t anointed
That holy water that you soak in has been poisoned
When everyone else is more comfortable remaining voiceless
Rather than fighting for humans that have had their rights stolen
I might not be the same, but that’s not important
No freedom till we’re equal, damn right I support it(I don’t know)And I can’t change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
My love
My love
My love
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warmWe press play, don’t press pause
Progress, march on
With the veil over our eyes
We turn our back on the cause
Till the day that my uncles can be united by law
When kids are walking ’round the hallway plagued by pain in their heart
A world so hateful some would rather die than be who they are
And a certificate on paper isn’t gonna solve it all
But it’s a damn good place to start
No law is gonna change us
We have to change us
Whatever God you believe in
We come from the same one
Strip away the fear
Underneath it’s all the same love
About time that we raised upAnd I can’t change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
And I can’t change
Even if I try
Even if I wanted to
My love
My love
My love
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
Love is patient
Love is kind
Love is patient
Love is kind
(I’m not crying on Sundays)
Love is patient
(I’m not crying on Sundays)
Love is kind
(I’m not crying on Sundays)
Love is patient
(I’m not crying on Sundays)
Love is kind
(I’m not crying on Sundays)
Love is patient
(I’m not crying on Sundays)
Love is kind
(I’m not crying on Sundays)
Love is patient
Love is kind
After posting something about this song on Facebook, I received an email from someone that follows me. So to Gwenn Z. just know my thanks really is inefficient because the openness you’ve shared with me is far more valuable than anything I could every say or do.
“Dawn, thank you for this gift this morning. “The Same Love’… every human on this planet feels this at one time or another in their lives. We are no different in what our hearts yearn for. Love does not change because of who you love. In all ways this is just not about love shared by those of the same sex’ it is about the love we were born to give to each other as human beings. Unconditional, non-reactionary, with no fear. The respect for others that love brings, the knowing that we are ALL the same at our core. People come in and out of our lives for a reason, one reason may just be to awaken someone else’s heart. Make them see that we really are ALL the same within. I believe, this is a purpose in your life, Dawn. (And, in all of ours) I am sure that, no, change that, positive, your being in this world has changed more than one persons beliefs, you have changed their heart. I thank you for that from the bottom of mine. A line from the poem “From the love of” by Laurence Craig-Green: “They come, they go. They seldom know what they do, but they do change you.” Know that you are “the change you wish to see”, just by being. Have a perfect day, Dawn.”
Excerpt from a piece written with nothing but love:
“Her mouth pressed up against mine, lips soft, warm, sweet, full of a kindness I had never known before. Her hand pressed up against my cheek and I felt love like I had never experienced. I was scared. What would they say if they knew? If they knew that in my darkest moments I wished for the simple love of another woman. Fighting all of my life against it because my family would abandon me. They would never allow it but then again, they don’t understand love. Not the way I do. Not without restriction. Without judgment. Without question. And so, I opened my eyes and I allowed myself to melt into her. Her lips pressed against mine, perfect and gentle, and that first kiss opened up the window to my soul – the one I had allowed to breed dust and loss and shame – and for the first time in my life, I was free …” – Chloe Ayelet
