This world we live in

It's falling apart.  Have you noticed?  People can have their opinions on why, and how, it's happening, but the fact is it doesn't matter.  What matters is that it is happening, every day.  I've heard people say it's "the gays" bringing down the institution of marriage, that are the cause.  I've heard people say it's "the guns", "the minorities", "the millennials", "the homeless", "the liberals", "the conservatives", "the muslims", "the christians"... I'ts always "them".  The thing is we are all "them".  The one thing, the one constant thing, that is bringing us down is Hate.  

“Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet.” 
―Maya Angelou

Everyone's head is so far up their own ass, that all they can do is place blame on whatever group of people they hate most for the world crashing down around us.  There is so much hatred in this country right now, and everyday there are physical acts of violence that prove it.  "United we stand, divided we fall"?  Has that ever been more true?  When will we realized that violence breeds violence, hate breeds hate; that you can't combat fire with fire?  

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." -------Martin Luther King, Jr.

This is no longer a strong nation.  We are crumbling, we are broken, and it's because we have become so full of anger, and revenge.  People are at their weakest when they are angry.  We've taken the easy way out, we no longer have what it takes to fight for our own country.  It's far easier to hate, than to love and forgive, and yet that is what we so desperately need right now.  We need compassion, we need understanding.  What we need (here is the ECE teacher in me) is for everyone to take a damn deep breath and focus.

“I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.” 
―Booker T. Washington

I don't have a solution other than not going along for the ride down.  I won't spiral with the rest of you.  I know there is goodness left, even if we don't see it as much as the darkness.  I see it everyday, in my children, in the people I choose to surround myself with.  My goal is to educate my children, to fill them with enough love and compassion, and resilience to carry them through this world, to be better than we are now.  Kindness is an incredibly powerful tool, but right now so many people are refusing to use it.  We are deteriorating, and every hateful person, committing every hateful act are throwing fuel on this fire.  

“Spread love, joy and compassion because the world needs it, for hatred and pain need no escort; they know how to survive without it.” 
― Radhika Mundra