Reply #43: please forgive me [View All]

[Bluerthanblue]

if this sounds offensive- or politically incorrect.... but I have to ask this question...

And in order to ask it, I have to preface with this statement- I in NO way doubt that the Holocaust happened, that it was savage, brutal, and something that should NEVER be forgotten, or repeated-

Having said that.

Is it just the sheer numbers? Is it that this atrocity happened to people who for the most part 'resemble' (ethnically- physically-socially) so many people who have exercised and continue to exercise power in this world that makes what happened under the reign of Adolf Hitler so contemptible, and so ...... above any other suffering/genocide/atrocities ever committed????

Somehow, I- and I don't understand why- there is a kind of mystical ... 'holiness' attached to the suffering of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust--- I in NO way desire to minimize the grotesque, vile, and evil (in its truest sense) actions that were done to a large population of people BECAUSE they were born 'Jewish'- but does that make the continued murdering of people who are Black- Female- Arabic- Gay- Poor- "less than" or somehow... a lesser atrocity? Especially when the murdering, torturing- brutal abuses are being carried out not only as we speak, but without enough outrage, and with the freedom to 'condemn' those who are victims as somehow complicit in their plight?

I'm not asking this clearly- but people who said of the body of an African American citizen, floating bloated in the yard of a home in the lower wards of NOLA " hey, they chose to STAY there- no one made them stay there" when in truth, some people had absolutely NO choice as to whether to leave- or over the fact that they were born into poverty in a place in America where the govt- but little oversight and safety measures in place to protect the most vulnerable in our society from becoming victims of nature and neglect?

Where are the 'compensation packages' for the Katrina victims? Where are the cash settlements and law suits that match those of the victims of 9/11? Why is the World Trade Center seen as "hallowed ground" yet, people are eager to just let the ocean have the ground that swallowed the lives of innocent vulnerable people in the gulf coast? Why do we pay lip service to the Native Americans?- even boldly admit our horrendous treatment of them, yet do nothing, (or the equivalent of nothing) to alleviate their suffering, loss, and near extermination???

Is it the 'identification factor'? is it "my pain is bigger than yours"? I don't understand- and I want to. Because what happened to each person in the Holocaust is no more or less vile to me, than any other act of premeditated cruelty, murder, or atrocity committed anywhere.

I identify with the young girl "Abeer" in Iraq- and the suffering that she endured because she was born female- attractive- and vulnerable. Her family perished along with her- and her relatives, neighbors and fellow citizens have every reason to hold a conference about the atrocities of American Imperialist atrocities- ditto the Guantanamo Detainees- ditto the Native Americans- ditto- Gays and lesbians in the US and abroad- ditto the poor and marginalized people everywhere who bear the brunt of the worst of human 'nature'....

sorry... no offense intended... I think it's time to break from DU for a bit----- I'm getting overload.

peace,
blu