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Sunday, September 10, 2017

It's 4 a.m. Do You Know Where You Stand?

It's funny the things that awaken you at 4 am and take hold in your brain with a sudden need for expression- to be rapidly typed in the eerie glow of your cell phone's notepad, lest you forget. Mine was a nightmare with a gruesome Hitler-esque atrocity and a sudden disturbing thought: it wasn't Hitler's fault.

Before I go further, let me say this: Hitler was a very bad guy. I'm not trying to say he wasn't. But he was one very bad guy. One very bad guy who found support from a lot of other average, nameless, faceless bad people. 

Hitler rose to power on a wave of hatred, entitlement and nationalist pride. Angry, bitter people who believed they were better than others, deserved more than others, blamed their personal and national misfortunes on another group of human beings. People who were quietly as sick and depraved as Hitler, without the public speaking skills.

Hitler's rhetoric didn't instill those beliefs, it merely reflected and satisfied those beliefs in an already existing population. It found a warm safe space in the hearts of those who wanted to believe it, wanted to hear it shouted from a high place. Not because it was truth, but because it was power. 

We speak about Hitler as though Germany was a victim. The truth is he was just one man. One insane man with an effective gift, but he had a willing audience. Not a fringe audience either. A large active body willing to participate in, even create their very own sick depraved acts of cruelty and violence against other human beings because they believed it was their right to do so. 

When we share lines from the poem "First They Came" we participate in the "when good men do nothing" myth, as though all that was needed for Hitler's rise was apathy. There were no good men who did nothing. Good men took action, at great person risk, to sabotaged the regime and it's efforts on many levels. Everyone else chose evil.

Germany wasn't an innocent bystander. They were supporters, enablers and actors too. Hitler wasn't responsible for the atrocities of WWII. He's the willing scapegoat. He's the name we gave the boogeyman so we wouldn't have to think about all the others who weren't simply complicit, but actively, gleefully, righteously sought to bring his insanity to fruition.

There have been many brutal tyrannical leaders throughout history. Hitler wasn't the first megalomaniac to seize control and cause sweeping devastation. The reason Hitler is still the scary specter that haunts us is because we know he's not the last. We recognize the dangerous ease with which it will happen again. 

Hitler didn't seize power. It wasn't wrested from the apathetic hands of an innocent nation. It was given to him by evil, selfish, ugly people who looked and behaved and thought just like you and I.

Hatred and bigotry and nationalist entitlement are a blight on society. They have no rights. They should be deprived shelter, confronted and driven out of our culture. There is no excuse for excusing or avoiding it. It is the responsibility of all world citizens to stand up and say "Never again." To blot out the roots of this singular human evil in every corner of the earth, from jungle & tundra huts to opulent white houses and tower spires.

No matter your faith, spiritual belief or personal philosophy, a day of accounting will come. Everyone leaves their mark, large or small, on the world. No one will get a free pass. There will only be two places to stand: with hatred and bigotry or against it.
Choose wisely.

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