“The many tens of millions of murders of the Stalinist era, the Third Reich, communist China, and the killing fields of Cambodia, to name only a few are blatant testimonials to godless chaos and cruelty.” pp. 32-33These are just the ones we are aware of if we have done any reading or thinking. These are just in the last hundred years. These are just the ones that made the news.
How many deaths does it take to rate as a holocaust? We have other words for them today: Ethnic cleansing, genocide, abortion. Does the destruction of the welfare system or drugs qualify? Do we run the danger of desensitizing people by calling too many things holocausts?
It is important to note the anniversaries for the Jewish and Armenian holocausts. It isn’t because these groups are any more important than the Ukrainians or Cambodians. It is because they are more familiar. It is because they remind us of the evil that is perpetuated by certain regimes. It is to make us aware of what is going on today in the Middle East and in parts of Africa. Maybe we need to have special days to mark more of these atrocities.
I expect to see it again. I won’t be surprised if devout Christians are rounded up someday in America. There is a saying about eternal vigilance being the price of liberty.
Here’s to vigilance.
Schlessinger, Dr. Laura and Vogel, Rabbi Stewart. The Ten Commandments.
New York: Cliff Street Books, 1998.
homo unius libri
The older I get, the more I'm beginning to see that evil never rests.
ReplyDeleteAnd I think as we get older and wiser we see more clearly the evil that exists.
DeleteGrace and peace.