Great piece, Gwen. Shuddery scary, those people. We should have seen it coming. I felt it when Tim McVeigh blew up the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City in 1995 and Militia groups came out of the woods to cheer him on.

I felt it when the Tea Party became a presence in congress, their hatred of “the other” their calling card and their ticket to ride.

And I especially felt it when Barack Obama became president and the hate groups gave up muttering or whispering their racism and saw his popularity as threat enough to open up and lash out in ways so ugly we were left reeling, shocked to our core.

The force of it now is even more shocking. Maybe the difference is that the president of the United States is encouraging them, egging them on, using violent language, insulting anyone different or disagreeing. And getting away with it.

We can change it by building communities welcoming everyone but the haters, but how long would that take? How much time do we have before they’ve taken over and our best efforts will be seen as just so much weakness?

Every story of kindness or bravery is encouraging, a moment of sweet solace, but the underlying fear that this tsunami of hate is about to swallow us up — that’s what keeps me awake at night.