President Joe Biden delivered remarks at the Human Rights Campaign Dinner, where he was at one point interrupted by a protestor who shouted “let Gaza Live” during his speech, an interruption the President largely ignored.
Citing hatred as an epidemic that also plagues the U.S., Biden said “a week ago we saw hate manifest another way in the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust.” Biden emphasized: “Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination.”
Biden’s address centered on that emotion — hate — as a contagious virus bigger and more dangerous than any particular politics, implying that only if society can reject hatred, which is so easily weaponized, it can then pursue peace.
Biden: We have to reject hate in every form. History has taught us again and again, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, Homophobia, Transphobia… they're all connected. Hate toward one group left unanswered opens the door for
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 14, 2023
more hate toward more groups pic.twitter.com/DWNbsjb34T
Biden returned again and again to this idea, admitting the idea of using “love” to solve the world’s problems “sounds corny” — just the way the promises of the Declaration of Independence sound “corny.”
“We have to reject hate in every form,” Biden exclaims. “Because history has taught us again and again, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, Homophobia, Transphobia — they’re all connected. Hate toward one group left unanswered opens the door for more hate toward more groups more often.”
“The antidote to hate is love,” Biden exclaimed, “The answer is… solidarity and standing up for everyone in society. That’s why the laws that actually protect equality matter –every single American, no matter who you are, who you love or where you come from. This shouldn’t be about conservative, liberal, red or blue — it should be about realizing the promise of the Declaration of Independence. Sounds corny.”
Biden cites life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, saying “folks, it may sound corny but we’ve never fully lived up to that promise but we’ve never walked away from it like many want us to do.”
Biden heard some concurrence in the comments, with a number of people pointing out that the speech was aimed at all Americans, not a faction or base of voters, even if its hope of reaching his detractors is small.
One disagreed with the President with a stirring objection. “Gonna say it does not sound corny,” they wrote. Another heard an echo of Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous declaration: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
