Yes, my Friends, I hope you will read today's blog for the message it contains, and not for any other, whether you "see it" in the blog or whether you "feel it" from my words. I just ask that you read it with a calm and open mind, not with any preformed "attitudes" or any "pre-judgments" (= prejudice) about me. So, here goes:
I read a few days ago (January 10th - CBS News online) that Tel Aviv, Israel had become the latest in a series of cities around the world, including such places as Amsterdam, Sydney, Berlin, and San Francisco, that have added memorials to their Holocaust Memorials. The additions are strictly to honor Nazi victims who were homosexual or had were "transgendered." Like I said, please don't start yelling and screaming that I am "anti-gay." If the commissions of these various national memorials wanted to do this, that is certainly their business. Now, please listen because this is the point of this blog: Victims of the Holocaust were ALL VICTIMS. The Nazi killing machine was EVIL beyond description and all the people they killed were JUST AS IMPORTANT as the "special class" of victims memorialized of late. It was a terrible and unspeakable crime against humanity to kill ANYONE in the Nazi death camps, just as it was terrible in the genocides of many other regimes, not as well heralded as were the victims of the Nazis.
I have noticed with all victims of genocide, whether killed by the Nazis, Chairman Mao, Stalin, the Japanese during World War II, the Bolshevik Revolution, Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge, or ANY OTHER genocide you can name, all those killed were JUST AS DEAD as were the homosexual victims of the Nazis. All the victims were just as loved and just as missed by their families as were the homosexual victims. The families were just as devastated no matter what LABEL was applied to their loved ones. And this is the point of my blog today. I am just a little angered that someone somewhere decided that homosexual victims of the Holocaust needed to be just a little more honored and remembered than those that were killed because they were Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, immigrants, physically challenged, mentally challenged, or just because they had dared to stand up against the Third Reich. They were ALL VICTIMS. The idea that murdering one "class" of victims is somehow "worse" than murdering just some "regular" guy or girl is appalling to me, as it has been for years, since the term "hate crime" was invented to elevate the assault or murder of some class of victims above that of other victims. Hate is hate, and murder is murder, no matter who does it to whom, and why.
Years ago, when I still wore a Peace Officer's shield and enforced the law equally from victim to victim, a movement started in our nation's capitol to designate a special class of crimes as "hate crimes." I believe, but could be mistaken, that this movement originated when several synagogues around the country were targeted by vandals. From there, the momentum continued to the point that crimes ranging from minor vandalism such as graffiti, to felonies such as capital murder, were all "enhanced" if some element of "hate" were suspected to be involved in the motives of these crimes. Police officers first, then prosecutors at trial, were expected to differentiate the offenders' motives, and determine whether the criminals "HATED" their victims, or they "merely" assaulted or killed their victims "in the furtherance" of the crime. Something about the idea that one person's victimization was "worse" than an other's for the same crime (but different motive) did not sit right with me then, nor does it to this day.
Now, in this 21st century, we have special classes of people that someone has determined need more protection than "regular" people do. In the process, that same "someone(s)" has or have determined that certain classes of people need to be "re-honored" as if they were not remembered with the millions of other victims of the Holocaust. Again, I am not expressing "anti-gay" or anti-anyone else feelings. I am saying that the victims of the Holocaust, and I mean ALL OF THE VICTIMS, have now been honored and remembered for well over fifty years, as well they should have been. Indeed, we should never forget. But I am angered that some of us feel the need to divide and label Hitler's victims then somehow make it seem that one class or another of the victims needs to be RE-REMEMBERED as if they were not already counted part of that terrible thing perpetrated by the most evil regime ever seen on this planet.
Yes, Hitler's demons targeted "gays," but they also targeted many other people, many other "labels." I believe it was inappropriate to then decide sixty years later that some subset of the Holocaust victims somehow was not honored enough. What is next, monuments for all those victims who were mentally challenged? What about the Slavs who were murdered simply because they were Slavic? Do we need a new memorial for them as well? What about Catholic nuns, what about Jewish school teachers? No, what we need to do is simple. We just need to remember that each person in the world is just as important, just as loved, as the next person. When someone is wrongly victimized we are all harmed, and not because of whatever label can be applied to the victim, but because the victim was A PERSON - a person who was loved by someone, who was cared about by someone.
Thank you, my friends, for indulging me in this rant. It came from my heart, and no one has to agree with me. In fact, if someone does not agree, I would love to hear why. Discussions can lead to better understanding, and an open mind is a mind full of possibilities.
I read a few days ago (January 10th - CBS News online) that Tel Aviv, Israel had become the latest in a series of cities around the world, including such places as Amsterdam, Sydney, Berlin, and San Francisco, that have added memorials to their Holocaust Memorials. The additions are strictly to honor Nazi victims who were homosexual or had were "transgendered." Like I said, please don't start yelling and screaming that I am "anti-gay." If the commissions of these various national memorials wanted to do this, that is certainly their business. Now, please listen because this is the point of this blog: Victims of the Holocaust were ALL VICTIMS. The Nazi killing machine was EVIL beyond description and all the people they killed were JUST AS IMPORTANT as the "special class" of victims memorialized of late. It was a terrible and unspeakable crime against humanity to kill ANYONE in the Nazi death camps, just as it was terrible in the genocides of many other regimes, not as well heralded as were the victims of the Nazis.
I have noticed with all victims of genocide, whether killed by the Nazis, Chairman Mao, Stalin, the Japanese during World War II, the Bolshevik Revolution, Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge, or ANY OTHER genocide you can name, all those killed were JUST AS DEAD as were the homosexual victims of the Nazis. All the victims were just as loved and just as missed by their families as were the homosexual victims. The families were just as devastated no matter what LABEL was applied to their loved ones. And this is the point of my blog today. I am just a little angered that someone somewhere decided that homosexual victims of the Holocaust needed to be just a little more honored and remembered than those that were killed because they were Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, immigrants, physically challenged, mentally challenged, or just because they had dared to stand up against the Third Reich. They were ALL VICTIMS. The idea that murdering one "class" of victims is somehow "worse" than murdering just some "regular" guy or girl is appalling to me, as it has been for years, since the term "hate crime" was invented to elevate the assault or murder of some class of victims above that of other victims. Hate is hate, and murder is murder, no matter who does it to whom, and why.
Years ago, when I still wore a Peace Officer's shield and enforced the law equally from victim to victim, a movement started in our nation's capitol to designate a special class of crimes as "hate crimes." I believe, but could be mistaken, that this movement originated when several synagogues around the country were targeted by vandals. From there, the momentum continued to the point that crimes ranging from minor vandalism such as graffiti, to felonies such as capital murder, were all "enhanced" if some element of "hate" were suspected to be involved in the motives of these crimes. Police officers first, then prosecutors at trial, were expected to differentiate the offenders' motives, and determine whether the criminals "HATED" their victims, or they "merely" assaulted or killed their victims "in the furtherance" of the crime. Something about the idea that one person's victimization was "worse" than an other's for the same crime (but different motive) did not sit right with me then, nor does it to this day.
Now, in this 21st century, we have special classes of people that someone has determined need more protection than "regular" people do. In the process, that same "someone(s)" has or have determined that certain classes of people need to be "re-honored" as if they were not remembered with the millions of other victims of the Holocaust. Again, I am not expressing "anti-gay" or anti-anyone else feelings. I am saying that the victims of the Holocaust, and I mean ALL OF THE VICTIMS, have now been honored and remembered for well over fifty years, as well they should have been. Indeed, we should never forget. But I am angered that some of us feel the need to divide and label Hitler's victims then somehow make it seem that one class or another of the victims needs to be RE-REMEMBERED as if they were not already counted part of that terrible thing perpetrated by the most evil regime ever seen on this planet.
Yes, Hitler's demons targeted "gays," but they also targeted many other people, many other "labels." I believe it was inappropriate to then decide sixty years later that some subset of the Holocaust victims somehow was not honored enough. What is next, monuments for all those victims who were mentally challenged? What about the Slavs who were murdered simply because they were Slavic? Do we need a new memorial for them as well? What about Catholic nuns, what about Jewish school teachers? No, what we need to do is simple. We just need to remember that each person in the world is just as important, just as loved, as the next person. When someone is wrongly victimized we are all harmed, and not because of whatever label can be applied to the victim, but because the victim was A PERSON - a person who was loved by someone, who was cared about by someone.
Thank you, my friends, for indulging me in this rant. It came from my heart, and no one has to agree with me. In fact, if someone does not agree, I would love to hear why. Discussions can lead to better understanding, and an open mind is a mind full of possibilities.
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