James Coleman
Journals
1. “So why would anyone seek to harm these good people? Why would someone take the lives of his fellow human beings with such senseless cruelty? Because hurt people hurt people. Because when suffering isn’t treated with compassion, it seeths and spreads. Because when fear isn’t met with courage, it deceives and disconnects humans from humanity. When ignorance isn't countered with wisdom, it festers and takes root in the heart of the fearful. When hatred isn’t cradled with kindness, it can corrupt the beauty of existence to the extreme that causing suffering is the only thing that makes sense anymore”(xvi).
The authors used this powerful quote in the prologue to give the readers a definition of the kind of hate that exists in the world. He explains what hate can do when it is not treated with kindness, compassion, and love. They use this to provoke empathy in the readers hearts before they even begin the first chapter. Without explaining the context of the story about to unfold, they open their audience’s mind to the possibility of love and equality, and turn them against hate. Then, they begin the story.
By asking rhetorical questions in the prologue, the authors forced their readers to find answers for themselves. By asking why anyone would seek to harm good people, they explore the relationship between hate and love. The descriptions of what happens when hate, fear, ignorance, and suffering are not treated with compassion are detailed with terrible clarity. They challenge people to do something in their own lives about the hate around them and inspire them to make a difference.
2. “Monsters are not created by God. They are shaped by the society we live in. By us. The ingredients that make monsters are hatred, suffering, isolation, and minimalism”(xvii).
This establishes a connection between religion and humanity. The authors use this quote to destroy the excuse that monsters were predestined for evil, created by God. They instead say that monsters are created by society, and therefore each person has a choice. They establish the possibility of free will and again challenge the readers to take action against the ingredients that form monsters.
The world that we live in is what creates the monsters that terrorize our streets. Men and women who are so hurt they they feel the need to hurt others. “Hatred, suffering, isolation, and minimalism” are the ingredients that drive these people over the edge. If we could just show some compassion as a society then I think we could truly lessen the number of monsters. A smile or kind word can go a long way.
3. “But even if it were true that he mistook us for Muslims, how did that change the tragedy of innocent people murdered because they were different from the shooter’s idea of what America should look like”(3).
In this quote, the authors put the tragedy into perspective. They equalize the situation by reminding the readers that the shooting was horrific, and that it would still be horrific whether or not they were brown or white-skinned, Muslim or Sikh. They also catch the reader’s attention by saying “the shooter’s idea of what America should look like”. This immediately draws people to think of the American dream and what they want America to look like, while the shooters was wrong and hurt so many people, it is not uncommon for people to have differing views of what society they want to live in.
Somehow when we see shootings or horrible events that happen overseas, we tend to think less of them. We forget that those are people with their own personalities, lives, and families who were just killed. We also especially like to place blame, saying “oh they were Muslim” or in painfully recent years “oh they were black”. I think that the authors used this to remind us that pain is pain and it affects all people regardless of their race or skin color.
4. “I explained to Pardeep that the only way out of the quagmire of racial prejudice was practice. [...] The more we practice something, the more natural it becomes. It was no different with hate. [...] The antidote was getting people to practice loving kindness, I said”(15).
Practice was the concept used by the authors in this quote to make the big picture relevant and understandable to the readers. Everyone understands the idea of practice and this also makes the idea of practicing loving kindness plausible. People can understand that it is possible and that it might take some time and work, but is achievable for everyone. In this way the authors also challenged every reader by showing them that they have no excuse to have racial prejudices.
Everyone has heard the saying “practice makes perfect”. People understand the idea that it takes practice to become good at something or to change one’s habits. This universal understanding is what I think inspired the writers to use it to challenge their readers and show them that everyone is capable of kindness and love. There is no excuse for hate and every reason to practice kindness in our daily lives.
5. “Before becoming a Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, or Christian, let’s become human first”(40).
At this point in the novel, Pardeep Singh Kaleka is establishing that hate is hate regardless of race or religion. He explains to the readers what the Sikh religion consists of and then expresses that the tragedy that occurred would have been just as awful if it was in a church or a mosque. The point he makes is that hate is hate and people, regardless or belief or skin color are still people.
What does it mean to be human? The dictionary defines human as a “human being, especially a person as distinguished from an animal”. But I believe that being human means so much more. It means having a set of morals and ethics that one chooses to live by. It means empathizing with those around us and appreciating that while none of us are perfect, we are all humans living in the same world together. That is why hate is so painful, because it involves one person feeling that another person is lesser than themselves.
6. “When had hate ever trumped love”(117)?
This rhetorical question forces the readers to truly consider if they can think of a time that hate trumped love. Rhetorical questions are employed by authors with the sole purpose of catching the reader's attention and forcing them to take a step back and consider their own opinion on the topic. Spoken in this manner, we can tell that the author feels that hate has never trumped love and nor will it ever.
When reading this, the rhetorical question ploy worked. I was forced to take a step back and think about if hate had ever trumped love. I concurred that it had not. My thoughts were drawn to events such as the Holocaust and the Civil Rights Movement, which externally seemed to be extremely hate-filled. But then I realized that if there is even one speck of kindness or love in the midst of the horror, then hate has not won. That is why I believe it will never trump love because I have faith that kindness and love will be present even in the worst of times.
7. “As tears spilled down my cheeks, I mourned all of the time I’d lost hating other when what I’d really felt was hatred for myself”(119).
With this sentence, the authors connected to an entire population that has experienced self loathing at some point in their lives. They used this to relate to people and thereby make the issue at hand more understandable. They also used the illustration of tears spilling down cheeks to lead the readers to picture the true pain and sadness that the character was experiencing.
The acknowledgment of the self-hatred behind the hate is used as a connection to the reader. While sad that people can connect with this, everyone experiences some sort of self-loathing as some point in their life, and it becomes a choice whether to let it infect anything else. Arno let his own insecurities affect who he became and the hate that he fostered for many years. Each person has a choice.
8. “We were hurt people who had hurt people and were now dedicated to healing ourselves and others”(138).
In this quote, the authors use the word “hurt” in two different contexts to catch the reader's attention. He first says that they were hurt people, as in sad and in pain, but then says that they hurt people, as in causing pain. The word was used in different ways to stand out and cause readers to focus on the sentence because of its importance. They also established the change that had occurred, and showed people that they were now dedicated to healing.
I love the repetitiveness of this sentence. It really caught my attention and I enjoyed the play on words. The idea behind it is also very accurate because when people are hurting they want to hurt others to make themselves feel better. It is a sad truth, but it is realistic that making others feel worse tends to make one feel “better” temporarily. I think it is amazing to see the change that the men made and see their dedication to healing themselves and others.
9. “‘Hate begets hate; violence begets violence,’ [...] The same is true for peace and love”(165).
The repetition in this quote is also used to grab the reader’s attention. The authors used it to enforce the idea that hate is powerful, as is violence, peace, and love. They are each as powerful as the person who practices them.
This reminds me of the quote about practice. If you practice hate then that is what will be evident in your life, and the same is true for violence, peace, and love. People also inspire others, whether in a positive or negative way, and if the inspiration can be positive then life could be so much better.
10. “See something; say something. That was my motto when it came to prejudice. [...] Dr. King got it right when he wrote, ‘Nothing is this world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity’”(192).
This is again a challenge for the readers, but also an establishment of ethos by the authors by bringing Dr. King into the issue. He was a highly respected member of the Civil Rights Movement, and therefore was the perfect person to use to help prove point about prejudice. Dr. King’s words inform the readers that ignorance is dangerous, and the authors used this to challenge them to “see something say something”.
This sentence reminded me of a discussion that we had in AP about perpetrators and bystanders. We addressed the idea that bystanders are just as dangerous as perpetrators because if they are not helping, they are hurting. Ignorance is dangerous and can hurt people. “See something; say something” is a challenge to the readers to address issues when they see them and take a stand for what they believe in.
11. “So many people close themselves off from the world around them, as I once had, and never discover the joy of that comes with having an open heart. It’s normal to fear what we don’t know, but knowing isn’t necessarily a cause for fear”(199-200).
The author, Arno at this point, uses his own experience to enforce his proposition to live with an open heart. He says that people who live as he did will never experience the joy of life because they will be controlled by a fear of the unknown. He reminds them that knowing should not be a cause of fear and that people should strive to live fearless and open lives.
Every person knows the pain of shutting themselves away for a time. Some thought choose to do so indefinitely and that is when it can become truly unhealthy. They never experience the true joy that comes with living life with an open heart and being open to people and the world around them. They live in fear of the unknown, and let it control their lives. Fear or the unknown is common, but, as the quote says, knowing should not cause fear. “Knowledge is power”, not fear, and if people could live their lives in a open and optimistic way, they would be so much happier.
12. “We have to be radically empathetic with each other, with the person next to us, with the person we just met today”(205).
This whole novel is about addressing and standing against hate. “See something; say something”. It educates and challenges people to take action and stand against the hurting people who are hating people around the world. The authors advocate for being radically empathetic with those around us, a wonderful word choice, because the word “radical” enforces the magnitude of the situation.
I love the idea of being radically empathetic with each other. Each person has their own struggles that most people do not even know about. We should not be able to judge someone until we know everything that they are going through. Most people are going through so much more then others see and if we could be empathetic and understanding then the world could be so much happier. Hate would disappear because people would choose to display love and kindness instead of judgement and hate.
13. “[...] we introduced the concept of seeing ‘yourself in the other’ [...]”(210).
The authors have established by this point in the novel that love will always win over hate and that if people could choose to exhibit kindness instead of judgement, the world could be a better place. This quote introduces the concept that could change people in a dramatic way. The solution is a perfect way to start wrapping up the book because now that they have discussed the mass amounts of hate present in the world, they now offer a solution and give their readers something to think about.
If we could each stop for a few minutes and try to see “ [ourselves] in the other” the world could be a much happier place. It would be easier to empathize and to understand people if we recognized that everyone is human and we all have similarities on some level. We also should appreciate that each person struggles with different things, just as we do, and if we can acknowledge that and treat them how we would want to be treated, hate would be nonexistent.
14. “Kindness is the most devastating weapon against the suffering from which all violence stems. Love is the antidote to the fear and loneliness that seeds hate”(213).
The paradox of kindness being used as a weapon is the illustration that makes the reader think about what kindness really is. They also call love an antidote and say that loneliness is the seed that grows hate. These illustrations make what were only words and ideas into pictures in one’s mind. This is a smart move on the author’s part because it is easier to engage the readers if you can make them imagine the situation and truly invest in it.
The idea of kindness being a weapon is so powerful. Although kindness is generally seen as a warm and meek action, the picture of it being a devastating weapon is impressive. It truly is. Kindness is so much more powerful than people give it credit for. It can triumph over hate and suffering and stems love which is then painted as the antidote for loneliness and hate. Love being an antidote relates hate to a poison, which is so true because it can be deadly.
15. “Together we were mindful of the truth that forgiveness is not forgetting, but rather forging a path to healing”(218).
To conclude the novel, after speaking about love trumping hate, and kindness being a powerful weapon, the authors express the importance of forgiveness. They remind the readers that forgiveness does not necessarily mean forgetting, but rather internalizing, empathizing, and moving past the event. They use this reminder to show the readers that moving on is possible but that it is a choice.
The reminder that forgiveness does not mean forgetting is so important. Too many people think that to forgive one must forget about the event, but I do not agree with that. To me, forgiving means to internalize the event and learn what you can from it, and choose to empathize with the person who hurt you in order to move on. If we could recognize that all people are similar on some level and choose to forgive instead of hate, the world could be a much happier place.
The authors used this powerful quote in the prologue to give the readers a definition of the kind of hate that exists in the world. He explains what hate can do when it is not treated with kindness, compassion, and love. They use this to provoke empathy in the readers hearts before they even begin the first chapter. Without explaining the context of the story about to unfold, they open their audience’s mind to the possibility of love and equality, and turn them against hate. Then, they begin the story.
By asking rhetorical questions in the prologue, the authors forced their readers to find answers for themselves. By asking why anyone would seek to harm good people, they explore the relationship between hate and love. The descriptions of what happens when hate, fear, ignorance, and suffering are not treated with compassion are detailed with terrible clarity. They challenge people to do something in their own lives about the hate around them and inspire them to make a difference.
2. “Monsters are not created by God. They are shaped by the society we live in. By us. The ingredients that make monsters are hatred, suffering, isolation, and minimalism”(xvii).
This establishes a connection between religion and humanity. The authors use this quote to destroy the excuse that monsters were predestined for evil, created by God. They instead say that monsters are created by society, and therefore each person has a choice. They establish the possibility of free will and again challenge the readers to take action against the ingredients that form monsters.
The world that we live in is what creates the monsters that terrorize our streets. Men and women who are so hurt they they feel the need to hurt others. “Hatred, suffering, isolation, and minimalism” are the ingredients that drive these people over the edge. If we could just show some compassion as a society then I think we could truly lessen the number of monsters. A smile or kind word can go a long way.
3. “But even if it were true that he mistook us for Muslims, how did that change the tragedy of innocent people murdered because they were different from the shooter’s idea of what America should look like”(3).
In this quote, the authors put the tragedy into perspective. They equalize the situation by reminding the readers that the shooting was horrific, and that it would still be horrific whether or not they were brown or white-skinned, Muslim or Sikh. They also catch the reader’s attention by saying “the shooter’s idea of what America should look like”. This immediately draws people to think of the American dream and what they want America to look like, while the shooters was wrong and hurt so many people, it is not uncommon for people to have differing views of what society they want to live in.
Somehow when we see shootings or horrible events that happen overseas, we tend to think less of them. We forget that those are people with their own personalities, lives, and families who were just killed. We also especially like to place blame, saying “oh they were Muslim” or in painfully recent years “oh they were black”. I think that the authors used this to remind us that pain is pain and it affects all people regardless of their race or skin color.
4. “I explained to Pardeep that the only way out of the quagmire of racial prejudice was practice. [...] The more we practice something, the more natural it becomes. It was no different with hate. [...] The antidote was getting people to practice loving kindness, I said”(15).
Practice was the concept used by the authors in this quote to make the big picture relevant and understandable to the readers. Everyone understands the idea of practice and this also makes the idea of practicing loving kindness plausible. People can understand that it is possible and that it might take some time and work, but is achievable for everyone. In this way the authors also challenged every reader by showing them that they have no excuse to have racial prejudices.
Everyone has heard the saying “practice makes perfect”. People understand the idea that it takes practice to become good at something or to change one’s habits. This universal understanding is what I think inspired the writers to use it to challenge their readers and show them that everyone is capable of kindness and love. There is no excuse for hate and every reason to practice kindness in our daily lives.
5. “Before becoming a Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, or Christian, let’s become human first”(40).
At this point in the novel, Pardeep Singh Kaleka is establishing that hate is hate regardless of race or religion. He explains to the readers what the Sikh religion consists of and then expresses that the tragedy that occurred would have been just as awful if it was in a church or a mosque. The point he makes is that hate is hate and people, regardless or belief or skin color are still people.
What does it mean to be human? The dictionary defines human as a “human being, especially a person as distinguished from an animal”. But I believe that being human means so much more. It means having a set of morals and ethics that one chooses to live by. It means empathizing with those around us and appreciating that while none of us are perfect, we are all humans living in the same world together. That is why hate is so painful, because it involves one person feeling that another person is lesser than themselves.
6. “When had hate ever trumped love”(117)?
This rhetorical question forces the readers to truly consider if they can think of a time that hate trumped love. Rhetorical questions are employed by authors with the sole purpose of catching the reader's attention and forcing them to take a step back and consider their own opinion on the topic. Spoken in this manner, we can tell that the author feels that hate has never trumped love and nor will it ever.
When reading this, the rhetorical question ploy worked. I was forced to take a step back and think about if hate had ever trumped love. I concurred that it had not. My thoughts were drawn to events such as the Holocaust and the Civil Rights Movement, which externally seemed to be extremely hate-filled. But then I realized that if there is even one speck of kindness or love in the midst of the horror, then hate has not won. That is why I believe it will never trump love because I have faith that kindness and love will be present even in the worst of times.
7. “As tears spilled down my cheeks, I mourned all of the time I’d lost hating other when what I’d really felt was hatred for myself”(119).
With this sentence, the authors connected to an entire population that has experienced self loathing at some point in their lives. They used this to relate to people and thereby make the issue at hand more understandable. They also used the illustration of tears spilling down cheeks to lead the readers to picture the true pain and sadness that the character was experiencing.
The acknowledgment of the self-hatred behind the hate is used as a connection to the reader. While sad that people can connect with this, everyone experiences some sort of self-loathing as some point in their life, and it becomes a choice whether to let it infect anything else. Arno let his own insecurities affect who he became and the hate that he fostered for many years. Each person has a choice.
8. “We were hurt people who had hurt people and were now dedicated to healing ourselves and others”(138).
In this quote, the authors use the word “hurt” in two different contexts to catch the reader's attention. He first says that they were hurt people, as in sad and in pain, but then says that they hurt people, as in causing pain. The word was used in different ways to stand out and cause readers to focus on the sentence because of its importance. They also established the change that had occurred, and showed people that they were now dedicated to healing.
I love the repetitiveness of this sentence. It really caught my attention and I enjoyed the play on words. The idea behind it is also very accurate because when people are hurting they want to hurt others to make themselves feel better. It is a sad truth, but it is realistic that making others feel worse tends to make one feel “better” temporarily. I think it is amazing to see the change that the men made and see their dedication to healing themselves and others.
9. “‘Hate begets hate; violence begets violence,’ [...] The same is true for peace and love”(165).
The repetition in this quote is also used to grab the reader’s attention. The authors used it to enforce the idea that hate is powerful, as is violence, peace, and love. They are each as powerful as the person who practices them.
This reminds me of the quote about practice. If you practice hate then that is what will be evident in your life, and the same is true for violence, peace, and love. People also inspire others, whether in a positive or negative way, and if the inspiration can be positive then life could be so much better.
10. “See something; say something. That was my motto when it came to prejudice. [...] Dr. King got it right when he wrote, ‘Nothing is this world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity’”(192).
This is again a challenge for the readers, but also an establishment of ethos by the authors by bringing Dr. King into the issue. He was a highly respected member of the Civil Rights Movement, and therefore was the perfect person to use to help prove point about prejudice. Dr. King’s words inform the readers that ignorance is dangerous, and the authors used this to challenge them to “see something say something”.
This sentence reminded me of a discussion that we had in AP about perpetrators and bystanders. We addressed the idea that bystanders are just as dangerous as perpetrators because if they are not helping, they are hurting. Ignorance is dangerous and can hurt people. “See something; say something” is a challenge to the readers to address issues when they see them and take a stand for what they believe in.
11. “So many people close themselves off from the world around them, as I once had, and never discover the joy of that comes with having an open heart. It’s normal to fear what we don’t know, but knowing isn’t necessarily a cause for fear”(199-200).
The author, Arno at this point, uses his own experience to enforce his proposition to live with an open heart. He says that people who live as he did will never experience the joy of life because they will be controlled by a fear of the unknown. He reminds them that knowing should not be a cause of fear and that people should strive to live fearless and open lives.
Every person knows the pain of shutting themselves away for a time. Some thought choose to do so indefinitely and that is when it can become truly unhealthy. They never experience the true joy that comes with living life with an open heart and being open to people and the world around them. They live in fear of the unknown, and let it control their lives. Fear or the unknown is common, but, as the quote says, knowing should not cause fear. “Knowledge is power”, not fear, and if people could live their lives in a open and optimistic way, they would be so much happier.
12. “We have to be radically empathetic with each other, with the person next to us, with the person we just met today”(205).
This whole novel is about addressing and standing against hate. “See something; say something”. It educates and challenges people to take action and stand against the hurting people who are hating people around the world. The authors advocate for being radically empathetic with those around us, a wonderful word choice, because the word “radical” enforces the magnitude of the situation.
I love the idea of being radically empathetic with each other. Each person has their own struggles that most people do not even know about. We should not be able to judge someone until we know everything that they are going through. Most people are going through so much more then others see and if we could be empathetic and understanding then the world could be so much happier. Hate would disappear because people would choose to display love and kindness instead of judgement and hate.
13. “[...] we introduced the concept of seeing ‘yourself in the other’ [...]”(210).
The authors have established by this point in the novel that love will always win over hate and that if people could choose to exhibit kindness instead of judgement, the world could be a better place. This quote introduces the concept that could change people in a dramatic way. The solution is a perfect way to start wrapping up the book because now that they have discussed the mass amounts of hate present in the world, they now offer a solution and give their readers something to think about.
If we could each stop for a few minutes and try to see “ [ourselves] in the other” the world could be a much happier place. It would be easier to empathize and to understand people if we recognized that everyone is human and we all have similarities on some level. We also should appreciate that each person struggles with different things, just as we do, and if we can acknowledge that and treat them how we would want to be treated, hate would be nonexistent.
14. “Kindness is the most devastating weapon against the suffering from which all violence stems. Love is the antidote to the fear and loneliness that seeds hate”(213).
The paradox of kindness being used as a weapon is the illustration that makes the reader think about what kindness really is. They also call love an antidote and say that loneliness is the seed that grows hate. These illustrations make what were only words and ideas into pictures in one’s mind. This is a smart move on the author’s part because it is easier to engage the readers if you can make them imagine the situation and truly invest in it.
The idea of kindness being a weapon is so powerful. Although kindness is generally seen as a warm and meek action, the picture of it being a devastating weapon is impressive. It truly is. Kindness is so much more powerful than people give it credit for. It can triumph over hate and suffering and stems love which is then painted as the antidote for loneliness and hate. Love being an antidote relates hate to a poison, which is so true because it can be deadly.
15. “Together we were mindful of the truth that forgiveness is not forgetting, but rather forging a path to healing”(218).
To conclude the novel, after speaking about love trumping hate, and kindness being a powerful weapon, the authors express the importance of forgiveness. They remind the readers that forgiveness does not necessarily mean forgetting, but rather internalizing, empathizing, and moving past the event. They use this reminder to show the readers that moving on is possible but that it is a choice.
The reminder that forgiveness does not mean forgetting is so important. Too many people think that to forgive one must forget about the event, but I do not agree with that. To me, forgiving means to internalize the event and learn what you can from it, and choose to empathize with the person who hurt you in order to move on. If we could recognize that all people are similar on some level and choose to forgive instead of hate, the world could be a much happier place.