Queasy stomach

The vitriol in some Facebook posts is starting to affect me. I know I have the choice of whether to read something or not. Perhaps this is the same reason people tell me they no longer watch the news anymore, because its contents are affecting them.

A regular fishing competition that was to be held this long weekend, is to be boycotted. Each to his own, but it was the comments that followed this announcement, that actually made my stomach churn. They were so hate-filled and racist. It is obvious that some people are holding so much bitterness. I think people need to consider, when calling another out, whether their own comments are actually the racist ones. In this case, many of them were.

I am not a fisherman; I don’t partake in these competitions. The reason for the boycott – that the fish are spawning at this time of the year, could very well be justified. But just boycotting an event, days out from its happening, is unfair to the organisers who would have put in a lot of work putting this competition together, finding sponsors and everything else involved. And there will be many people coming to the region to take part in this yearly event who will be disappointed if it is disrupted. I read a Herald article that said the competition will go ahead, despite the opposition from some locals, and in the article, it stated that the opposers did not in fact represent everyone, as was stated in the Facebook post.

This fishing competition is just one example where I have seen these particularly vicious comments. There seems to be a growing wave of hatred emerging, and it saddens me from deep within. It saddens me that there is a small sector of people who are carrying so much bitterness inside themselves and it also saddens me that some of these people live not far from me – that I will have venom directed at me because I am white. My plea, don’t lump me in a box because of the colour of my skin. Get to know me, find out my back story, just as I will do with you.

Everyone is the race they are born in this lifetime, but I tell you, we have all lived many lifetimes before our current one, and you may very well be directing your venom at the race you were last time around or will be next time around.

We are all human beings and we will all return to the same place when we die. Let’s show tolerance to each other. And please, try and refrain from placing those nasty comments out publicly. They don’t serve anyone.