Ok, I admit it. Politics has got me thinking...I mean the choices we have given ourselves are terrible - again. But I want to dig beneath the candidates and look at what is really being said.

I am so weary of fear and hate. I am sick to death of these becoming the motivating factors of our American lives. When did we become so righteous that even listening to a different belief became grounds for ostracization? When did we become so fearful of other ideas, other cultures and "other" in general?

Muslims are Not "The Enemy".  The term LGBT should not be a challenge to one's moral superiority. And you do you know how I know? I listen to what these people have to say. Did you know that the vast majority of any sub- group (as in a piece of the human race) you'd care to name wants virtually the same things out of life that I do. Isn't that amazing? They want to be fed, clothed and housed safely and privately. They want their children to have a better world than they had. They want peace of mind. They want peace.

Don't get me wrong. War is sometimes necessary. The 20th century will go down in history as the age of genocide. And sometimes, you must fight fire with fire. But I believe two things about war; 1) it should be avoided if at all possible, and 2) once started, it is not a political arena, it is a military one with a single, imperative mission- Win! Win as fast and as completely as possible. You save more lives that way.

But we are not at war with Islam. They are not at war with us.  Some very powerful and some middlingly powerful people are using Islam to maintain  their grip on power and we get to be the bad guys. We make easy targets. We are the "Haves". They are the "Have-nots". If you'd like to know a little more about why they hate the West, do some research on the Crusades. Christians were brutal. And those wars were blessed by the Church (who used them as a way to exercise control over governments, btw.) If you really want to go back, in the Old Testament, God commanded the Hebrews to wipe out the other Sons of Abraham, which they tried mightily to do. They didn't get it done and that war is still being fought in the Middle East.

And homosexuality as a reason to deny God's love? A reason for so-called Christians to, at best, look the other way when things like Orlando happen? In my King James version, the "Love thy neighbor as thyself" does not have any exceptions. It doesn't say " unless thy neighbor is Muslim, gay or otherwise different from your conception of what a good Christian is". And here's the funny thing: Orlando was the worst case of personal homophobia in history. The gunman was so afraid of his own sexuality that he killed the object of his desire. Look it up on Wikipedia if you don't believe me: homophobia.

We must stop finding reasons to hate and fear each other. I know - why don't we just talk to each other with the following ground rules:

• My ability to swing my fist ends where anyone else's nose begins.
• We do not have to agree, but we must respect each other's opinion enough to listen to it all.
• It is acceptable that we follow different paths, seek different goals and believe in different Gods or no God. We can attempt, through conversation and persuasion, to change each other's minds. But its is NOT required, either the persuasion or the persuading.
• We are all human.

I think this system will breed understanding across whatever divide you'd care to invent. I could be wrong, though. Let's try it and see...