Tuesday letters: Dylann Roofs are taught to hate

Babies are not born to hate, but they learn how as they grow older. They learn from their parents, their peers, their environment, their culture. While many individuals as they mature recognize and reject the evil embedded in this approach to differences, many more embrace it. When your role models tell you a minority is “raping our women and taking over the United States and need to be eliminated,” some will believe this rubbish and act out on it.

When I see Dylann Roof, I think of a precious 5-year-old interacting joyfully with his playmates and at peace with the world. Then he starts to become indoctrinated to hateful ideology from his parents, his peers, his environment and/or his culture, and the sweet little boy is set on a path that can lead to the Dylann Roof of today. Just one day before the massacre, I was walking by Dutch Fork High School and saw a truck driven by a 20-something with a large Confederate flag flying from the back — to me a visible reminder of the racial friction that still simmers not too far below the surface.

Roof must account for his crimes, no question there. But that is not the end of it. There will be more and more Dylann Roofs as long as there are adults who preach hate and violence to the children they are responsible for.

Irmo