AGE HATE - by Noah Hawkes

            It is very easy for folks my age to say hurtful things about older generations. We’re surrounded, every day, by the news of some politician, some law-maker, some president, all somewhere between 40 and 80 years old, making decisions that do not reflect the current times, that make things worse, that actively harms, hurts, and kills us, all with no representation from anyone who is nearer to our age. We don’t hate the elderly, we hate the system that excludes us and props up unknowledgeable people. But it comes out as “I hate old people” because we’ve been traumatized by them and their laws. You see it time and time again. Generations of women traumatized by men, hurting, screaming, “I hate men,” queer people silenced, shunned, killed, “I hate straight people,” trans people beaten, broken, murdered, “I hate cis people,” people of color enslaved, mocked, massacred, “I hate white people”... When we cry out in pain against those that hurt us, we’re not thinking about the good people within the groups that perpetuate violence, we are feeling and reacting and trying to cope.

            I ask that anyone on the other side of “I hate ___” remains open and caring to the perspective of the person who has suffered by the hand of the group they’re a part of. Including myself.

            I ask that anyone who is screaming “I hate ___” finds people of that group, through stories, fiction or non-fiction, who are truly good and empathetic to their pain, and find peace and know that not everyone is out to kill them. Including myself.