Good Intentions

A hate crime according to the FBI is defined as an instance "which the perpetrators acted based on a bias against the victim’s race, color, religion, or national origin." Keep in mind this does not have to include an act of violence. The interesting thing is that most hate groups start with good intentions. They start as recreational, brotherhoods, religious groups, anti-_______ radicalism groups, etc. They have goals that sound as promising as "Southern Reconstruction", emphasizing "moral issues that impact the family", and "educates citizens and elected officials to impact policy involving national security and defeating terrorism". These ideals all sound great, because they are! We need more groups that promote education, reconstruction, and the impact of moral issues on our families. The bad part about this is that I've learned to be careful of people with good intentions, because it is not people's intentions that we feel and are impacted by, but more so their actions.

I've seen through my life and the life of others that oftentimes circumstances may blind someone of their intentions depending on the character or self-awareness of said person or group. Hypothetically say there was a group of people who were being marginalized by others. Let's call the aggressor group "W" and victim group "M" just to make it easy to remember. First perspective we have to understand is that at some point group W felt threatened, whether it was valid or not is neither here nor there. So after a certain period of time group W creates a group to protect themselves, but inherently these groups sole focus is to protect themselves "by any means necessary" from group M. Just like that, we have a hate group. There are over 1,000 (large enough to be called active) recorded hate groups today and this is only counting those of white supremacist ideology. Some people may say that these groups never had good intentions, luckily we all have the freedom to pick a side. How often have we seen peaceful protests from the other side go south because of "a few bad apples" who started with good intentions of just protecting themselves or their rights?

Alright, enough of the pie in the sky sentiments, let's bring this home. What about that family that means well, or that best friend that you needed to let go because although intentions were well, they never lived up to it? Notice not once have I talked about money, fame, big houses, and recognition. Simply intentions and actions. I had a lot of people in my life with good intentions that I had to make a conscious decision to slowly let go the hand of because I WAS BECOMING the person with only good intentions. How does it affect you to speak on love, kindness, humility, change, but settle for a life of greed, constant depression, lies, and guilt?

Einstein's formula E = mc^2 expresses the cycle of energy into matter (potential into existence). Intention + energy = manifestation. Let your intentions flow into a life of actionable: self fulfillment, self awareness, self love, self forgiveness, self abundance, self peace, and many more blessings that you couldn't even imagine. All while not bleeding over into the detriment of others, because "Most of the evil in this world is done by people with good intentions"- T.S. Elliot.

God Save us from people who mean well
- Vickram Seth