The world is a cruel place, or at least it can be. There's shootings and massacres and corruption and crime and evil people that fill this world spreading hate and preaching their injustices as law. They fool the uneducated into believing them. This spreads the hate.

Hate is a strange thing. It can start with one person, just one singular person who believes what they think is right and what everyone else thinks is wrong. They think that because they can spread their beliefs means that they should. They use words like rights and freedom and retribution and 'terror.' They twist the simple liberties we were once given as a society and molds them to fit their agenda. They think that the best way to get others to follow them is to scare them into submission. Hate then catches like a spark and spreads like wildfire destroying everything in its path. Suddenly people are getting hurt. Christians and Muslims and Mexicans and Gays and Blacks and Whites, it doesn't matter who it is in the line of blazing fire, all the matters is that they will get burned. Innocent people are killed, property is destroyed, terror spreads. People start to be scared to be who they are. They're afraid to practice what they believe, afraid to kiss who they want, afraid to go out into a world they think is out to get them.

But, here's the funny (no, it's not that funny actually) thing about hate - it can be stopped.

Hate can sizzle out just like fire can - with water, with care, with time and with determination.

For every group of extremists that hijack a plane there's even more who flock and risk their lives to help rescue those stranded under the rubble.

For every shooter that goes into a night club there's thousands of people who stand in line to give blood. There's hundred of blood banks who have to turn people away because they're full.

For every person who enters a house of worship to slaughter innocent people there's so many more who pray for forgiveness.

For every flicker of hate there is goodness to drench it.

There's a black woman who stays sitting down and says no, I will not move.

There's one man standing in front of thousands saying I have a dream.

There's a little girl who just wants to learn and so no, she will not be quiet, no she will not let men walk over her. A bullet will not keep her down. Violence and threats will not stop her.

There's a group of church goers who ask for forgiveness instead of seeking revenge.

There's two men who would rather kiss and hug each other then scream with hate and call people terrorists.

There's charities that donate millions of dollars to children with cancer and grant them wishes, anything they want because they're sick and it's the right thing to do.

There's soup kitchens that open their doors to families who struggle.

There's police officers that strive to protect people.

There's doctors who work for hours and hours on one patient to save them so that they can wake up and go back to their families.

There's children who go to school to learn and play with no thought of hate, who have never been jaded to the world, who have never felt the harsh realities of life.

There's parents who love their children.

There's people who just want love.

People are good. Society is good. It is so easy to be corrupted by hate and while it isn't easy to stop that raging fire of hate it still can be done. Teaching our children to be fair and kind and nice is the first step in ending the cycle of hate.

There will always be those who wish to do harm. There will always be rioters. There will always be homophobes and racists and scared people. There will always be hate. But along with hate there will always be love. We must learn as a society to foster that love and kindness until it grows from its own kindle to engulf everyone in its embrace.

It won't be easy and it won't be quick but really, anything worth doing takes time and patience and one day, maybe, we'll all be free to worship and believe and kiss and not feel fear.

Maybe one day we will all just be people without the ties that bind us to our stereotypical roles.

Maybe it won't happen in our lifetime. Maybe it will happen at the end of our hardest day. Maybe it'll be tomorrow. We don't know. What we do know is that the future favors the fearless, the ones who aren't afraid to stop the hate.

So do not be afraid to speak up. Do not be afraid to defend your beliefs. Do not be afraid to be kind. Do not be afraid to stop the spread of hatred.

Do not be afraid.