Genocide begins with words

I am writing to support H.3643, which seeks to protect us from anti-Semitism.

I am not a lawyer. I am not a politico. I speak as a moral voice and student of history.

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Free-speech advocates rail against House anti-Semitism bill

Bill up for debate Thursday

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Evil and bigotry, prejudice and hatred, demonization and ridicule are the enemies of all good folks. Invectives do not seek to resolve any issue; they have a much deeper, malignant objective. They are the backdrop to the Holocaust, the murder and decimation of European Jewry. They are the necessary precedent, the invitation for violence.

Genocide begins with words. It starts, almost imperceptibly, with careful characterization of a people as less than the rest of us. I remind everyone I meet that Adolf Hitler, as far as I know, never murdered anyone. All he did was speak. And through his carefully crafted words, he caused mass murder, unfathomable brutality and millions of deaths across the globe.

Pol Pot was not different.

Stalin also learned the lesson well.

I encourage healthy debate and constructive conversation. But spewing hatred, demonizing my people or any people, is below what God had in mind when he created us. It is most certainly against the moral fabric of any just person, let alone a just society.

Is it really necessary to debate whether to decry anti-Semitism? I thought it would seem self-evident that inciting hatred has no place in America. Is this not the foundation stone of our nation and the hope of the world? Since when did we say that discrimination leading to hatred and brutality was of little or no concern?

Indifference leads to silence. When we do not accept the role of being “our brother’s keeper,” all things become possible. Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel wrote: “We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

Had people spoken up when they heard the vicious attacks, and the shattering glass that littered the streets, if they had spoken up in protest when their neighbors were being beaten, none of the atrocities of the 20th century would have been possible.

Now is our opportunity to break with the silences of the past.

This story was originally published April 25, 2017 at 5:32 PM with the headline "Genocide begins with words."