The slippery slope of conflict and war

People are not "garbage"

Oradour-sur-Glane, France

In France, there is a village that died on June 10, 1944, never to be rebuilt.

It was a small village, only 650 people, one-third children. When the Nazis came, they rounded up the women and children and herded them into the church. Then they shot the men and set fire to the church. Women and children who tried to escape were tear-gassed and machine gunned.

“Today, the ghost town, left untouched for more than 70 years (by order of then-general Charles de Gaulle), is well known by French schoolchildren, most of whom make a pilgrimage here. A sign greets every pilgrim who enters with only one English word: Remember.”

We never think that something like that could happen here in the United States although the slaughter of that small village happened only eighty years ago in a place we deemed “civilized.” It wasn’t a race thing; the killers and the killed were white. It wasn’t a strategic battlefield; it was the massacre of an entire village. No one knows for sure why it happened.

However, there is a common element between that massacre and every known atrocity and genocide that has ever happened: division into “us” and “them.” Some group of humans decides that another group of humans are “garbage,” “savages,” “vermin,” “animals,” “low-lifes,” “mongrels,” and a thousand other labels designating “them” as being of less worth than “we” are. Labeling and the mindset of “us” and “them” is the slippery slope towards war.

We are in a time of deep division when frustration and tempers are running hot.

Thankfully, Kamala Harris has pledged to be a “President for All Americans.”

And, we have a basic guideline as citizens: The Constitution.

We have to do our part and remember that democracy is messy. 330 million people are never going to agree on what or how things should be done. However, our joint agreement under the Constitution is that the we will elect people to act for us in making the rules and laws that we will follow. And, periodically, we will have a chance to elect new people when we want things to change.

Gettysburg

For three days in July, 1863, Americans fought Americans. There were 50,000 casualties on that Gettysburg battlefield and countless number of lives of family and friends destroyed. The terms “nazi,” “fascist,” “garbage,” were not yet known, however, the labels used to stir up hate included: “Grey Backs … lice” “Copperhead … snake” “Original Gorilla - black animal” (used as a label for President Lincoln).

Other than the four years of the Civil War, the US and our election processes have been, basically, a peaceful process even though they has been far from perfect. However, like many of you, I am now worried. It is not entirely certain that our democracy will hold through the upcoming election and its aftermath. We could lose what has held us together for almost 250 years..

Frustrating as this time may be, each of us holds a responsibility for peace. While it is baffling to understand some of the views held by others, we can continue to focus on policies rather than resorting to labeling and name-calling. We can hold onto our faith in the peaceful processes outlined in The Constitution.

We can be the adults in the room.

For instance, this week I was triggered by a new book titled “Unhumans” with glowing reviews by many MAGA leaders. I badly wanted to write about the book … and tried. However, it kept coming out as an attack against the writers, reviewers, and intended audience. I caught myself in the now familiar loop of name calling, the very thing that triggered me about the title and the book.

When we start thinking of any group of people as “less than humans,” regardless of who they are, we have devalued them, and from there, terrible things all too often happen. That can happen whether we’re talking about the “far left,” “MAGA,” “billionaires,” “immigrants,” or any other group currently under attack by some other group.

We may not like or approve of the behavior or beliefs of someone, but they are still human beings. If we are to have peace, we have to find a way to discuss our differences and use all the wisdom tools available to us as well as those provided by our founders in the form of The Constitution.

I have a dark mental image of our children of the future visiting a memorial like Gettysburg or like that ghost village in France, wondering why their ancestors did this to themselves.

Patriots are loyal to their country.

A country is made up of its citizens.

We are all Americans by birth or by choice.

May peace prevail over this election and the following transfer of power.

More:

Oradour-sur-Glane, France’s Ghost-Town Memorial to a WWII Massacre, Rick Steves’ Europe

Frustration and tempers are running hot. Violence is threatening to bubble over. The dark clouds of our differences threaten chaos. There is so much at stake.

Kamala Harris pledges to be a President for ALL Americans. “All Americans” means even those we disagree with, even the ones we disagree with so violently