Blog 668 – 06.19.2017
Love Changes People Far More Than Education

One of my favorite blog writers in a piece about over coming hatred of others made a good point that hatred does not change people but to her the answer was education. She sited ISIS and their hatred of the West and even Muslims who do not believe as they do and how they vow to destroy all who will not change. To some education is always the answer to what they perceive as ignorance. What people believe no matter how ignorant and uneducated it may seem to someone else is their “truth.” And strong or subtle attempts to change their thinking about their truth is not perceived as education to them but rather as a threat, propaganda, brain washing, heresy etc. One thing more than any other truly changes minds, and can bridges the incomprehensible divides between us. And that, my friends is love.

I have cited before an incident where love trumped “truth.” The youth gang leader Nicky Cruz’s truth was what the “mean streets” of nineteen fifties New York City had taught him, “Might makes right” and the Switchblade knife trumps the goodie goodie sounding Golden Rule any day. But then he met a young preacher that believed love could change lives no matter how tangled up they were in drugs, shallow sensuality, and hateful revenge. Preacher Dave was really bugging Nicky with not just his talk about love but by walking the talk which was threatening the underpinnings of his truth. Nicky in frustration and exasperation yelled at Preacher Dave, “One more word about love and I’ll take this switch blade knife and cut you into a thousand pieces.” Without even thinking Love replied, “And if you do, Nicky, everyone of those thousand pieces will lie there loving you.” Love always wins, love alone makes us real, and only love can melt away hatred.  Nicky gave up his Switchblade knife for a message of love and change.

Only love can change people. Educate a pick pocket and he or she will graduate to robbing banks or with a business degree start companies that cheat thousands maybe millions all legally. Educate a liar and he or she will tell bigger lies and confuse and convince many that those lies are true and get elected to high office. Educate a murderer and he or she will become a mass murderer and maybe even convince nations to kill multitudes using high sounding reasons like national defense, patriotism, liberty, or justice to justify those killings. Education is not the answer love is the answer – peace, love, and understanding.

Nothing really changes till you love it and no one ever really changes their mind till love opens a door to make it possible to see something or someone in a different light – The light of love.

Your friend and fellow traveler
No opponent of education, science, or political justice
But an ardent proponent of peace, love, and understanding,
David White