I hate the Kansas University Jayhawks. Well, I don’t really HATE them, but I AM a Missouri Tiger, and for most of a century now Tigers have hated Jayhawks and will stop at nothing to communicate their distaste of the tasty bird from the Sunflower state. (By the way football fans, do you know how you keep a Jayhawk out of your yard? Put up a goal post!)

I never miss an opportunity to post my contempt for KU on Facebook, and a friend recently asked “Why do you hate KU so much?” The answer is, I don’t. It’s a tradition at Mizzou, and I’m just parroting the lines I learned there. The truth is: the University of Kansas has one of the most storied traditions and admirable records of achievement in the history of college basketball. They always win. And anybody who wins that much……well, you just gotta be against them on general principle.

It occurs to me that my hatred of KU is kind of an ignorant prejudice. Its easy to pile on to that kind of hate language. Just this week I got a Facebook friend request from a guy I’ve met a few times (though I could tell he didn’t remember me) who wanted to be my friend because he’d read a nasty comment I’d posted to Facebook about KU. Since we had a common enemy he wanted to be friends. Yep. He and I are ignorant together.

I grew up among those who hate black people, though we didn’t use that respectful term when I was a kid growing up in rural, Southwest Missouri. We didn’t know why we hated them. We just did because the generations before us did. We parroted the lines. Unfortunately, I’ve got university educated family members who call themselves Christian who still express their ignorant vitriol for blacks.

The same thing happens in the Middle East. Palestinians hate Israelis and Jews hate Muslims, all because the generations before them did. Nobody stops to ask why.

I’m a reluctant Republican; reluctant only because sometimes other Republicans say or do really stupid things that I hate to be associated with. Republicans hate Democrats and Dems return the favor. It’s really stupid, but most of us tend to project the worst examples of those parties onto everyone who bears that label.

The truth is there are nice Jews and nasty ones, nice Muslims and naughty ones, wise thoughtful Democrats and the rest of them, detestable Republicans and admirable ones, fine folks both black and Caucasian and despicable people in every race. When we choose ugly talk to denounce each other in blanket pronouncements, we only communicate our lack of thoughtful consideration; our ignorance. We really ought to do better than that.

From now on I resolve to withhold my judgment until I know the person and have listened carefully to what they have to say. I’ll judge them not on their race or heritage, but on their belief system and behaviors. It’s the least I can do in this enlightened age. In fact, I think I’ll give up prejudice all together. Except, of course, for one. No matter how much things change, some things always stay the same. KU still sucks!