Jessica, I have lost two forty plus year female friendships over this. This is a statement of fundamental values.

Right now I feel far, far, far safer in the company of my female friends of color than I do with some of my white friends, for I fear that in their silence they are quite eloquent. As some of the commenters have shown their colors below, they're right: people have drawn battle lines that were driven into concrete by this divise POS. That folks have chosen to allow their basest instincts to be manipulated into such hate speaks to all of us: how susceptible we are to propaganda, to messaging, and how incredibly EAGER we are to hate anything and anyone who doesn't absolutely support our POV. That is a war torn future for this country a war-torn world even worse off than it already is. I do not hate people who disagree with me. There is space for disagreement. I decry the hate, and I decry the damage that such hate does to us all. Even that statement of tolerance will get me accused of Liberal simpering.

Nope. Life isn't black and white. Life isn't polarized. We polarize it. The far left is as full of hate as the far right, all we've done is change the target. Tolerance is a gift, it's earned. Remarkable to me how many pseudo-Christians who claim to worship Christ, who at least on MY reading of much of the man's work, spoke to tolerance, as in love one's enemies. My goodness. What a radical idea. No wonder I don't set foot in churches. They are these days havens for hate. Our hardest possible work demands that we make space for disagreement, live and work and act out of integrity, and do not debase ourselves by behaving like what we most dislike. My hand is way up here. It's a hard damned road, the high road, the only road. Way I see it, Jessica, lotta room on it. Not too many people choose it. The friends I once loved didn't. That's fine by me. The lonely road beckons. The air is clear and the sun shines out there. For my part I am going to do my level best to stay on it.