The Cold Within

[H2O Man]

'The Cold Within'

Six humans trapped by happenstance
In dark and bitter cold
Each possessed a stick of wood--
Or so the story's told.

Their dying fire in need of logs,
But the first one held hers back,
For, of the faces around the fire,
She noticed one was black.

The next one looked cross the way
Saw one not of his church,
And could not bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.

The third one sat in tattered clothes
He gave his coat a hitch,
Why should his log be put to use
To warm the idle rich?

The rich man just sat back and thought
Of wealth he had in store,
And keeping all that he had earned
From the lazy, shiftless poor.

The black man's face bespoke revenge
As the fire passed from his sight,
For he saw in his stick of wood
A chance to spite the white.

And the last man of this forlorn group
Did nought except for gain,
Giving just to those who gave
Was how he played the game,

Their sticks held tight in death's stilled hands
Was proof enough of sin;
They did not die from cold without--
They died from cold within.

-- James Patrick Kinney


In February 2001, I had the pleasure of spending some time with my friend Rubin "Hurricane" Carter when he spoke to the students at Colgate University in upstate New York. It was a cold and snowy day, not entirely unlike today. I can remember the opening remarks by Jacques Levy, who wrote the lyrics to Bob Dylan’s song, "Hurricane." Too often, he is not given credit for writing the song, as people assume that Dylan wrote it. That said, I want to be clear that what I’m saying here is not original – I am merely passing on the message from that night.

Six years ago, the Bush-Cheney administration had not begun the war in Iraq. Several books have documented that they had already begun to focus on such an invasion. In fact, there is a clear record that shows that people from the Bush 1 administration were advocating such a reckless course since the end of the first Gulf War. There is no question that control of the natural resources of the Middle East played a central role in their desire to occupy Iraq.

The people advocating the oil war knew the secret of tyrants throughout human history: that hatred is the greatest pacifier in the sense that all one needs to do is to make a people hate a "common enemy" and they will soon forget about everything that is important about their personal lives. The tyrant-politician sows seeds of fear of that "common enemy" in order to raise a crop of hatred. And they reap the harvest, be it oil, money, or any other form of possessions they view as "power."

Hatred, in all of its ugly and brutal forms, is not inherent. It must be constantly cultivated. It is not part of the real world – it exists only within the lowest levels of human consciousness. Yet from that lowest of levels, it demands existence in the same manner that many organic diseases do …. It spreads like a cancer, and contaminates the entire vessel that contains it.

Hatred of "others" has taken many forms in human history. Hatred of people of different colors. Hatred of women. Hatred of men. Violence against children. Attacks on gays and lesbian people. Hatred of people who hold different beliefs. Hatred that spreads, out of control, and that threatens to turn communities against communities, family against family, bother against brothers, parents against children, and to destroy the social fabric. Is this not exactly what we see today in Iraq, thanks to this administration?

Hatred in this country has a long and terrifying history. And although there have been numerous brave and decent attempts consciously reduce the hatred that spills blood in our cities’ streets, that hatred came back in full force in 2001. There is no other explanation for the "election" of George W. Bush. There was no other force that placed the neoconservatives in positions of power. It was hatred, and that hatred was fertilized with fear.

On that cold winter’s night, Rubin told the students that there is no such thing as "racism." There cannot be, simply because there is no such thing as "races." There is only one race – the human race. The only force that divides us into "races" is hatred.

There are families, extended families, clans, and tribes. And the tribes of human-kind are engaged in conflict for control of the earth’s resources. That is insane. Spinoza spoke to this insanity clearly: "Many people are seized by one and the same effect with great consistency. All his senses are so strongly affected by one object that he believes this object to be present even if it is not. If this happens while the person is awake, that person is believed to be insane. … But if the greedy person thinks only of money and possessions, the ambitious one only of fame, one does not think of them as being insane, but only as annoying; generally one has contempt for them. But factually greediness, ambition, and so forth are forms of insanity, although one does not think of them as ‘illnesses’." (Ethics, IV Prop. 44 Schol)

There were enough people sick with hatred in this country to put Bush & Co into power. Their hatred demanded existence. And because those who hate must manifest their hatred, they become hatred. As they are transformed by hatred, they become hated. Can anyone deny that the United States has become hated to an extent under this administration that no nation has ever been hated before?

This level of hatred has reached a point that threatens all of humanity. Rubin read the poem by James Patrick Kinney to the audience at Colgate to illustrate that it is ignorance, hatred, and fear that threatens our existence – the cold within.

"Hate can only produce hate," Rubin tells people. "That’s why all these wars are going on, all this insanity. There’s too much anger in the U.S. People are too afraid, too numbed out. We need to wipe out all this hatred, fear, distrust, and violence. We need to understand, forgive, and love."

(I’d like to thank those DUers who donated a heart to the Water Man, and dedicate this little essay to them. Their kindness has warmed the heart of this old man on this most chilly of days.)