 |
|
 |
|
Charles Jaco has written opinion and commentary pieces for dozens of magazines and newspapers. Each week, read and comment on a fresh on-line version. The discussion page enables you to share your view points world wide. If you would like to make a comment go to the " Join the discussion" link below. If you would like to view past editorials visit the Editorial Archive. Editorial: 8/13/99
The teenage boy's voice had the same quaver as a combat veteran's remembering a particularly bloody firefight. He had survived the slaughter at Columbine High School, but his best friend and his cousin didn't. As he recalled blood splattered on the walls and soaking the floor tiles, I asked him why he thought it kept happening. Why Columbine and Jonesboro and the Atlanta day trader killings and the shootings at the Los Anegles day care center? It isn't guns, he said, or violent movies or raunchy music. It is, he said firmly and clearly, evil. To him, evil is no concept. It has a face and a trigger finger. I've had dinner with evil. Evil bummed a cigarette from me. Evil tried to kill me. And he looked different each time. At dinner, evil was disguised as a Haitian ally of the military, a man who ran a ring of murder and prostitution and extortion and torture in Port au Prince. When evil bummed a smoke, he was one of the army colonels in El Salvador who had ordered the rape and murder of a half-dozen nuns. When evil tried to kill me, he was a coke-snorting henchman of Panama's General Manuel Noriega. He put a .45 pistol between my eyes and pulled the trigger. The hammer clicked on an empty chamber. He had been so wasted he forgot to load the gun. Evil is plain enough when it kills others. Or is it? Anti-abortionists think it's evil to perform abortions. They think the fetus is a human life. Abortion rights advocates say the fetus isn't a human, therefore abortion's fine. The radical fringe of the anti-abortion crusade endorses the doctrine of justifyable homicide--that it's not evil to kill an abortion doctor because it stops abortions. Fighting evil isn't the problem. Recognizing it is. If life's a struggle of good versus evil, none of us says "Hey, I'm on evil's side." We'd all say we were on the side of good. So when the gunman went blazing away at children at a Jewish day care center, it was good because according to white supremicists, Jews are subhuman. When the Kansas state school board votes to dump evolution from the state's classrooms, it's good because according to many creationists, the earth's only a few thousand years old, no matter what the scientific evidence, so evolution is a form of evil. When Linda Tripp's indicted on a Maryland wiretap law that hasn't been used in twenty years, it must be good, because she's evil incarnate. She even looks like the witch out of Hansel and Gretel. You can see where all this can lead. The problem with American society today isn't that we can't recognize evil. It's that we can't shut up about it. Evil is under every bed, in every classroom, on every talk radio program. We, as a society, have become so convinced that our opionion is the right one that we persist in burning everyone who disagrees with us at the stake. Liberals are evil because they're responsible for the mess society's in. Conservatives are evil because they're Nazis in disguise. Whites are evil because they used to own slaves and are racists. Blacks are evil because they're genetically inferior. The poor are evil because they're lazy. The rich are evil because they're greedy. Hnadgun Control Incorporated is evil because they want to take away our guns. The NRA is evil because they're responsible for these mass murders through pushing less gun control. Make no mistake, evil does exist, and it does occassionally stalk the halls of schools or day care centers or corporate offices. But it's not in the heart of everyone who disagrees with you. |
Visit the Editorial Archive.
 |
|
[ News Views ] [ Coming Up ] [ Public Speaking ] [ News Boom ] |