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Letter: On politics, hatred and the art of compromise

Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Someone I’ve never met hates me.

It says so right on that Virginia license plate I noticed in the Home Depot parking lot the other day: H8DEMS.

As a Democrat, I was at first shocked, angry and finally saddened that we have come to this—the willingness to advertise hatred for another based on nothing more than their political leanings.

Hatred is such a strong emotion and, I believe, it has no place in public discourse. Hatred begets conflicts and precludes a settling of differences. Hatred is responsible for wars and the relegating of others to non-human status.

We hate what we do not understand and we refuse to attempt to learn. We listen to our chosen commentators on radio and television, read only those newspapers that tout our personal political views. We don’t learn whether what we hear and see and read are representations of the truth, we don’t investigate the issues, we plod along in our own mind-rut, fearful we may learn that...

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