A confession a long time in the making

Posted By: Jack Krampitz September 24, 2023

By Jack Krampitz

With all the recent controversy in Bristol surrounding racist fliers, swastikas and inappropriate Facebook posts, our city leaders have announced that there is no room for hate in this town.

At first, I thought that pronouncement a little too general. But then I started to examine my own conscience and realized that I had bitterness lodged in my own heart for a very long time.

So, I have the following confession to make to all seven of my loyal readers. I myself have harbored hate in my heart for many, many years. And now thanks to the city of Bristol, I realize I was wrong, and I pledge to do better.

Here is my sordid story.

When I was five years old, I had a severe hatred of peas and Lima beans. It seemed as if they were on our dinner plates several nights a week. My parents had a rule- clean your plate or sit at the table until you do. As my mother would always remind me, “ You know, Jackie, children are starving in Europe.” I could never figure out how eating Lima beans would help the children in Europe, so frequently I was sitting at the dinner table until bedtime. That only served to intensify my hatred. Now, sixty-six years later, I still can’t look at a Lima bean without my stomach tightening in resentment.

But that was not the worst of it.

When I first developed my love for the Red Sox, I naturally became a fervid Yankees hater. The Sox were always terrible, and the cocky Yankees were always on TV in the World Series. Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Yogi Berra; I hated them all. A lot of the kids in my neighborhood wore Yankee hats and pinstriped tee-shirts, and I hated them too, an intense, irrational hate.

I also was a Giants fan in football and rooted for the Celtics in basketball. And in the interest of full disclosure, I hated the Dallas Cowboys, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Los Angeles Lakers. I admit now, this was delusional. Why would anyone not like Roger Staubach or Jerry West? But I was a bitter young man.

Then Bristol’s leaders told me, “There is no room for hate here.” What was I to do? I’ve lived here all my life.

The only answer was to change, become a better human being. As I am writing this, my plate of peas and Lima beans awaits me. I eat them at every meal, and I have found that they are delicious, no, make that tolerable. But I love them.

Tonight, I will go to sleep on pinstriped sheets clutching my Cowboys pillow. I am at peace with the world and myself.

If I can change, can’t everyone? All I am saying is give peace a chance. Did someone already use that line? Or to put it another way, all you need is love. Maybe what I really mean is, can’t we all just get along? (Thank you, Rodney King)

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