The year was 1977. Hawaii Five-0 TV program. A crazed young man wanted to kill an older Japanese man who he thought had tortured and killed his father on the Bataan Death March in World War II. Well over 30 years previous, but the anger and hatred for his father’s Japanese antagonist was still there. As always, in the nick of time, Hawaii Five-0 chief, Steve McGarrett, arrived to save the day. A reporter had been trying to get a story out of this, and as the show was ending, he said to McGarrett about his story, “I could caption it ‘When Does a War End?’” McGarrett answered, “When do all wars end? When people stop hating and start loving.” The reporter asked, “Do you think that will ever happen?” To which McGarrett replied, “It better...oh God, it better.”
Uh, I’m sorry, Mr. McGarrett (Jack Lord was superb in that role), but wars will never end because hatred will never end. Almost 50 years later, the American President, Donald Trump, has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin about a war between Russia and Ukraine that has been going on for over 40 months now, but, prayerfully, it will end soon. The problem Mr. McGarrett (the Hollywood writers) wanted to solve—hatred in the human heart—will, sadly, never be cured because evil exists within every human breast, in greater or lesser degrees. There always has been evil in the world, and there always will be. And one of the greatest evils is hatred.
So, as long as this earth has existed, and will exist, hatred and war have existed and will exist. It doesn’t have to be that way, it shouldn’t be that way. But it is. 50 years ago, 2 Hollywood writers put into the mouth of a famous actor that war will end when hatred ends. That may be true. But it certainly hasn’t happened since 1977.
There are different kinds of “wars,” of course. Russians and Ukrainians have, off and on throughout their history, been at “war,” the killing kind of war that has happened all over the globe and far too often in human history. A couple of years ago, Hamas started this kind of war—a shooting, killing war—against Israel, and it’s probable they regret it now. But Arabs and Jews have been at “war,” in some shape, form, or fashion, since Ishmael and Isaac, and there doesn’t seem to be any possibility of it ever ceasing. Some people are taught hate from their mother’s womb, and they die with that same hate in their breasts. Hence, wars that kill people.
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For over 40 years, from about 1945 to 1991, there was a “Cold War” between the Soviet Union and the “West,” mainly America. This was an ideological war between two ways of viewing the world—communism and liberal democracy. Interestingly, the USSR and USA never went face-to-face in a shooting war against each other. But they did fight proxy shooting wars in Korea, Vietnam, and a few other out-of-the-way, unfindable, irrelevant places on the map.
And while we call this “Cold War” an “ideological” war between communism and Western values, the true source of the “war” was hatred. Vladimir Lenin, of Marxism/Leninism fame, told his followers, “We must hate—hatred is the basis of communism. Children must be taught to hate their parents if they are not communists.” Mr. McGarrett, what do you do when the very foundation of a people’s belief is hatred? When they are taught to hate, even their parents, if those parents don’t follow the correct 3 ideological path in life? Thankfully, the Soviet Union—Marxism/Leninism in that country—collapsed. But has Marxism disappeared from the world?
America is at “war” right now—with itself, within its own borders. It’s not a “civil war” a la what we fought in 1861-65, but the divide may be even deeper now. Lenin’s admonition to hate is alive and well in Leftist circles today, and anyone who cannot see that isn’t paying attention. Hatred even to the point of taking children away from parents who don’t “train” them the way the Left wants them trained. Pure Leninism. Get God, the Bible, and the Ten Commandments out of schools—which should be institutions overseen by parents for assisting in educating their children the way the parents want them educated. But, to the Marxist Left, parents, the nuclear family, are a hindrance, a nuisance, an obstacle to proper tutelage. Education is the government’s job. So said their master, Karl Marx: “The education of all children, from the moment that they can get along without a mother’s care, shall be in state institutions.” We are at war, folks. The Left is “coming for your children,” to turn them into something most parents don’t want them to be.
And it’s all rooted in...hate. A hate that Lenin said was the core of communism, a hate that venomously spits out of every Leftist’s mouth each time Donald Trump takes a breath. A hatred that revels every time a believer in Christianity dies.
I’m sorry, Mr. McGarrett, we kicked “love thy neighbor as thyself” out of our education system a long time ago, and replaced it with Vladimir Lenin’s “we must hate—hatred is the basis of communism.” And communism is what the Left wants, regardless of how loudly they shout “democracy.”
Never forget, the letters “USSR” stood for “Union of Soviet Socialist REPUBLICS.” The official name of communist China (the PRC), is 4 the ”PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC of China.” North Korea? “The DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC of Korea.” Yeah. American Leftists want “democracy.”
When does a war end? Maybe McGarrett was right, it will end when people love instead of hate. When will that happen? Not in your lifetime or mine, or anybody else’s in the future, either. Not if history teaches us anything at all about the human heart.
My substacks are a little unique. Not just current events, but history, our Founding Fathers, what America was meant to be, and Biblical exegesis. Check them out. “Mark It Down! (mklewis929.substack.com), and “Mark It Down! Bible Substack” (mklbibless.substack.com) Both free. Follow me on “X”: @thailandmkl. Read my western novels, Whitewater, River Bend, Return to River Bend, and Allie’s Dilemma all available on Amazon.
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