The Ordinary Nature of Hate

Is it the most wonderful time of the year?

This holiday season is not the usual type.  While many celebrate with wonderful traditions, fear has come to certain populations of the United States.

It's become a holiday tradition on my blog, when the Jewish holiday of Hanukah draws close, to blog about an annual museum in Binghamton, New York.

Hanukah House is located in a historic mansion now owned, and part of, Temple Concord.

Here is an outside picture.

During late November and into late December (days vary each year), Hanukah House operates as a museum dedicated to the Jewish holiday of Hanukah.  It's the Festival of Lights, a celebration of rebellion and religious freedom (and a miracle).  Each year its exhibits change.

Here are some of my previous posts.

From 2012

From 2015 

Would You Help a Neighbor? (from 2016)

And then there's this:  The Ordinary Nature of Evil (from 2016)

That was only the beginning, that ordinary nature of evil post.  Times have changed, my reader friends.

At one time you could just walk up to the door and open it, and walk into the museum/synagogue.

No more.

Now, the door to Hanukkah House is locked.  You have to ring a bell, and there is a security camera where the volunteers inside can view you, and decide if they will let you into the building.

Hatred has become so ordinary.  Someone with a gun, a car, a knife, could decide to put their hate into action at the mall, at your church, at your synagogue, at your mosque, at your local big box store, at your local TV station, at a concert, a movie, a grocery store, or even at an office Christmas party.

Just because.

It's so ironic that a woman whose dollhouses and dolls are part of Hanukkah House's exhibits was herself murdered in a mass shooting on April 3, 2009, in an adult classroom in Binghamton, New York.

We all pay the price of the haters among us.

Each and every day.

Even in a museum celebrating a fight for religious freedom.