I think that if I ever date, one day, I'm going to date a black Muslim man (or woman!), just to spite my dad. Have the deepest biological love for him, but I don't like him at all. He's a bit of a bigot, in a semi-harmless Archie Bunker kind of way. He refuses to listen to Cat Stevens and even calls poor old Cat a terrorist, simply because he's a Muslim. There is nothing wrong with Muslims. Out of all the millions and millions of Muslims, there's only a handful of extremists who bring up violence. The same could be said for Christians, Hindus, Jews, and so on as well. There's always a bunch of nutcases in any group who spoil the image of the saner majority. I once knew a Muslim girl who was excellent at math, and she helped me get a B on a project (only B I've ever gotten in math, ever) that I was having trouble with. She was very sweet and intelligent, and I liked her.

He's also not that big on gay folks, except Rob Halford from Judas Priest. He labors under that ancient, idiotic delusion that all gay folks are raving AIDS-carrying lunatics.

It is out of his hatred for the world that I try to love everybody I meet. I don't think we should hate anybody or discriminate based solely on skin color, belief system, sexual preference, or whatever. Jesus repeatedly said that one who loves his neighbor loves God. Meher Baba said similar things. Buddha said it, too. And I'm sure Mohammed and all the other prophets of other religions had something to say about it, too.

At the core of every religion is the unconditional love of God and the unconditional love for and of your fellow humans. I only wish people would realize this! That's our common, universal note--love. Compassion. Kindheartedness. Friendship. We shouldn't unite in hatred against others; we should unite in love with everybody we can, and we should teach others this same thing.

And I wonder what happens to the people like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, who hate so hard on their neighbors and still pretend to love God! God loves them, too, but I'm sure God's quite sad that everybody has twisted the message of unconditional love into one of conditional, connotated love--hatred, that masquerades as love, is truly the deepest, most vile kind of hatred that exists.

It's my mission in life, not to make lots of money and live in a nice house with a husband, two kids, and an S-moo-V, but to awaken people. People go through life on autopilot these days, completely oblivious to their loving hearts and the need for love throughout the world. I want to shake them out of it any way I can. I want to help them to see, to learn, to do.