Thoughts on some books I've read lately.

So last night I finished The Help.  Couldn't put it down.  It made me laugh, but mostly it made me angry.  Disgusted me that people could treat other human beings that way.  Recently I also read Unbroken, the biography of an American POW in Japan.  It also made me angry, and truly sickened that people could be so inhumane.  I also have recently read The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.  Loved the book, but was embarrassed that American citizens were treated so poorly just because of their Asian background. Before that I read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.  Oh how I hated that book!  I again felt frustration and anger.  Maybe I should stop reading books like this....one's that display the ugliness of human frailties specifically when one group of people thinks they are superior to another one because of race or religion.  How can the simple color of one's skin make them more or less of a person?  How can we who were all created by the same God think we are better than our brother or sister.  At first I felt disgust that other people would act this way.  I could see clearly the effects that hatred has on people.  It poisons their minds and makes them start to justify things that are unjustifiable.  Then I started to look a little closer to home.  Maybe I don't think less of a person because of the color of their skin, or what country they come from, but do I think I am better than someone else because of the way I choose to live?  Do I feel I am superior to someone because I dress better than them?  Why is it that as human beings we seem to be so drawn to judge others, and seem to have the need to put others down in an effort to lift ourselves up?  Why are we so quick to condemn and to even hate, especially when we know hatred eats up the good inside of us.  If we don't learn from history, we are stupid. (No offense)  I read a scripture yesterday that I believe has the cure to all of man's issues with each other.  It is found in the Book of Mormon in 4th Nephi verses 15 and 16.  And it came to pass that there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people. And there were no envyings, nor strifes, nor tumults, nor whoredoms, nor lyings, nor murders, nor any manner of lasciviousness; and surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God.  Truly if we love God, not only give lip service to it, how can we not love His children. 

Ultimately reading all these books has helped me to realize that I need to be a better person.