I’ve had it with Facebook. It’s become a forum for posting garbage that nobody gives a damn about. For every decent post and photo my friends post, I have to sift through dozens of other posts that carry the message “I hate you and what you stand for.”

I’m tired of photos of women wearing body parts costumes; I’m tired of posts that reinforce the hypocrisy in the world; I’m tired of posts that condemn people for their beliefs, opinions, and political stances. I’m tired, I’m tired, I’m tired, I’m tired of the anger! We are a world of anger, and it’s killing us.

Posting our anger on-line is disgusting behavior for adults. We wouldn’t tolerate this kind of behavior from our children, yet we engage in it to the detriment of our mental health and theirs.

What kind of example are we setting for our kids? No wonder they cry out for safe spaces: we’ve filled their world with so much anger they have no place to turn for love, genuine, unadulterated love. Love that overpowers the urge to lash out at those with whom we disagree. Kids see that. They know the signs. They know when we’re angry, not at them, but at those who don’t agree with our point of view. Anger and hate isn’t exclusive to political parties; hate is exclusive to humans. Humans. Us. We who have minds and souls. We who feel love, yearn for love, wish for love.

We’ve forgotten the times when we were kids. We didn’t hate like this. Hate is taught. Hate is learned. I believe man is intrinsically good. Have you ever seen a mean baby? No. Babies sleep, eat, gurgle, pee, poop, and laugh. They cry when they are hungry and when they are uncomfortable. They don’t hate. They watch us and imitate what they see. When I was four, I said “Shit” one night when I knew mom and dad would hear me, then I ran and hid under the record cabinet. I knew that word was bad. It was learned behavior. I learned it from dad, and from mom when she chided dad for using it in front of my sisters and me. Kids are the world’s greatest mimics.

Everybody, EVERYBODY, was saying just two months ago how much they longed for the election to be over so the hate would stop. Well folks, it’s getting worse. We have let politics determine our moods. We have let politics divide us. We have let politics decide who our friends are. We have let politics run our lives. We have let Facebook and Twitter, and nearly any forum where we can leave a comment, run and ruin our lives. I’m tired of it.

If we spent half as much time spreading love as we do hate, the world might be a much better place. Loving one another doesn’t start in Washington DC, or the Vatican, or in Church, or in school. It starts in the heart, at home. It starts with adults, parents, our first teachers.

I wish all of you would use Facebook – if you use Facebook – to post updates on your lives, your fishing trips, your vacations, your anniversaries, weddings, births, and graduations. I want to know when you lose someone you love so I may mourn with you. I want to know when your kids get a ribbon for doing great in gymnastics. I want to know when your dog dies, and when you get a new one. I want to know how you face getting older. I want to know what makes you happy and laugh; what makes you sad and cry. I want to know when your family member goes into the hospital so I can pray for them and for you. Please.

Everybody talks about making the world a better place. That takes love. Anger gets in the way of love. If we would drop the anger first, love would begin to fill its place. If we would stop expressing anger every time something occurs that we disagree with, the world would start to become a better place. I addressed the state of anger on social media in my essay, Susanna Avila VII. Feel free to read it. If you agree with my view, please share and reblog. I want to leave the world a better place. I want to stop the anger.

“All you need is Love.” Yes! It takes work, though. Love takes constant effort because anger will fill the void so insidiously. Anger is such an easy emotion to express. Anger is a primal instinct, a survival instinct. It’s part of human nature. We use it to attack because it feels like action. It’s really reaction and anything but proactive. Anger leads to hate and conflict, both of which are devastating to the soul.

If we don’t stop the anger, it will eat away at us from the inside. The effect of unbridled anger is like the exfoliation corrosion – rust – that appears on the surface of metal: once you see the corrosion, the damage has been done. The metal beneath the surface is eaten away, weakened, brittle, dying. Anger eats away at the soul, weakens it, makes it brittle, kills it. That’s a horrible way to die.

(Dad spanked me and mom washed my mouth out with soap. I still love them.)