Mark Zuckerberg has a moral responsibility to stop the propagation of hate currently running amuck on Facebook.
I finally had to take a stand and personally ask all my friends on Facebook to stop putting anything on my timeline from a website that is involved with propaganda for either side of any political, religious or racist movement!
I'm about love. And if you think my last statement is not man-up enough, that's cool too. I lived most of my life, swallowed by hate.
I know what it feels like to take a punch to the jaw and feel my left arm go numb. I know what it feels like to be beaten with a wooden fence post. I know what it feels like to shimmy on my belly through an enclosed water system over a river in the pitch black as war raged from where I was escaping.
I've seen the crimson-red snow on the streets of Sarajevo. The woman and children in bread lines blown apart by 120 mortars. I'm about love and I refuse to buy into the present day onslaught of hatred shared like wild-fire on the walls of Facebook.
Until today, I've forced myself to stay away from the madness on Facebook. However, several pieces and comments were sent to my wall because I posted a video of a young boy draped over his dad's coffin.
Jack, 13, was saying goodbye to his dad, a Dallas police officer killed by the lone sniper. I regret it now. You see, I was overcome with emotion. I pictured my 10-year-old son, Aidan. I wondered how he would feel. I wondered how he would go on.
Unfortunately, the hatred in our society didn't allow the senselessness of that young boy's final goodbye to translate. Instead, it turned into a black and white thing. Immediately, somebody wrote the N-word in a comment. Seconds later, a picture posted of three black Americans who were arrested for beating and 89-year-old veteran.
I'd like to heed a warning to all. Before you SHARE anything you read on Facebook, check the source and confirm all the details. With today's instant internet access, you can buy a domain, create a website, write false "breaking news" with pictures and quotes within 90 minutes. Hate breeds fear and fear breeds hate.
And make no mistake about it, both sides of the aisle are guilty of creating this false spin. Both sides have experts, they all understand news cycles and most of all they know, once you ring the bell in America, it can never be unrung.
In closing, I have close friends who are communist, close friends who are waiting for Obama to come and take their guns and everything imaginable in between, from gays and lesbians to Transgenders, all people striving to live a quality life and love until it hurts.
They are my friends because they are my friends, not because of their political or religious beliefs.
Our freedom has created a monster. A monster that may devour itself.
But I believe we still have a chance to stop the hatred if we come together and refuse to share the madness on the walls of Facebook.