SELF HATRED AND TOOLS OF INNER GREATNESS BY SEAN GILLESPIE

Back in the day, we used to get regular taunting emails from former Aryan Nations member Sean Gillespie, but on April 1, 2004 he firebombed a synagogue in Oklahoma City, and was captured on video not only by a security camera there, but also when he taped himself as part of a film he wanted to produce to inspire like-minded folks to violent revolution. Gillespie was arrested for the attack, found guilty and is now serving 39 years in federal prison at ADX Florence (Supermax) in Colorado with an expected release date of 2038. Normally we would be cracking jokes about such a fate to befall a Nazi, but earlier this year Sean started to write us and detailed his turnaround since he began his sentence. He says he has renounced his neo-Nazi ideology and is learning more to love not only others but himself as well. We thought folks who visit this site would be interested in hearing what he had to say, and he was kind enough to provide us with something he wishes to share with you all. It is sad that he wasn’t able to come to this point before his troubles, but at least he is still around to help guide others away from the path he took.

Sean Gillespie

Racism and hatred are not noble or ideal causes, yet rather they are the archaic blatherings of self-loathing individuals who have such a poor esteem for themselves that they direct that ignorance onto others. This hatred blinds them to their errors in thought and only serves to set them further back into a cycle of self-defeating loneliness. This hatred turns into a poison for them and ruins any chance they have of entering into the greater spectrum of humanity. That is the spectrum of unity and oneness for all of mankind.

Everyone has the potential of great love, compassion and acts of selflessness within us. It is only when we lose sight of that inner greatness that we can start to be full of hatred towards ourselves and our own failings. This in turn only causes an expanding web of hatred that leads to bigotry, prejudice and disrespect of those who are different than us. This is why it is necessary for everyone in the world to foster our potential for greatness. All of us have it within us. We just have to reach for it.

It is this greatness that allows us to combat hatred and ignorance in all of its forms and only serves as a greater weapon against those who hate. History is filled with such great examples of people who have practices this, such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela. They each espoused great love for humanity in all that they did. Time and again, the philosophies of humanities’ greats have won out against the physical oppressiveness of hate through love, understanding and peace. The examples they have set for us are timeless and we must continue them for us to be greater forces for humanity.

We are entering into a time which offers us a closer communal bond with the world around us. Technology is bringing us together at an unprecedented rate. This communal bond can strengthen the compassion, peace and unity amongst us and foster a new era of greatness in the world. It will be our greatest tool that enables us to destroy hatred intolerance and prejudice so that as time goes on we will continue to unite humanity as one.

“If we use anger at injustice as the source for our energy, we may do something harmful, something that we will later regret…compassion is the only source of energy that is useful and safe. With compassion, your energy is born from insight; it is not blind energy.”

–Thich Nhet Hahn

“Man’s goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished.”

–Nelson Mandela