repelling evil with words

 

"Look at the world with the child's eye -- it is very beautiful."

~ Kailash Satyarthi

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Donald Trump

"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?"

Kanye West

"I can say anti-Semitic things, and Adidas can't drop me.  Now what?"

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I was thinking about these types of statements -- to me, they seem like a form of the sentiment, "I can get away with stuff!  Woo - hoo!"

Your basic "Nyah - nyah-nyah NYAH Nyah!"

When I heard Mr. Trump's statement, I didn't take it literally, I guess.  I didn't start getting scared to take a trip to New York City because Donald Trump might shoot me on Fifth Avenue.

A lot of people are reading Kanye W's words as being literal anti-Semitism and encouraging that attitude in his fans and audience.  I see it a little differently -- and I'm not defending Kanye W, at all, but what I hear is "nyah-nyah-nyah"... a person who believes if he says "things" that many people will be outraged by, then that makes him tough.

        It made me think of a memory from childhood -- in Rootstown, Ohio, we lived next door to a family where there were two older sisters and one boy, who was a year or two older than me.  One day he said to me, "I'm cruel-to-animals."  I didn't have the language to express, even to myself, what I thought about this, but I remember the feeling I had -- that he was saying that to me, in order for me to be outraged.  For me to give him what we now call "negative attention."  And I sensed that he thought his words made him look "tough" in front of me.

        (The mom and dad of that family had one last name, and the three children had a different last name.  That was the first time I had ever heard of that, in my life experience up to that point.)

One of the reasons our society does not enjoy anti-Semitic remarks is because of the Holocaust.  When a leader in society, whether it's Adolf Hitler or Kanye West, riles up people to hate another group of people, it can lead to extremely evil consequences.

        Another childhood memory (God, it wasn't exactly 'Mr. Rogers neighborhood,' was it?!) -- we lived in Akron, Ohio, and the neighbor girl taught me a rhyme to sing (or -- chant, sort of) -- it began and ended with "eeny-meny-miny-mo" and in between, contained a racial epithet.  

        I was not yet in kindergarten and had never heard that word and did not know what it meant or that it could be offensive.

        Going in the house for supper, I went to the kitchen and cheerfully recited the new rhyme for my mom, who promptly hit the roof.

        ("We never say that word, it's a very bad word")

I explained to the neighbor girl next day, that we don't say that word.  And by "we" I didn't mean me and my parents, I meant me and her and Everyone Else In The World.

------------------------------ We can imagine every parent has that horrifying moment the first time their innocent little tot says words that they "didn't learn here at home"....

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