Political reflections

Today is VJ Day, a holiday celebrated seemingly only in the tiny state of Rhode Island, marking the end of the conflict in the Pacific. I was reading social media postings over the weekend regarding the events in Charlottesville and I wanted to write something to cheer myself up.

I remember as a child growing up in a strict Christian household, one of my favorite books was called "In My Father's House". Corrie Ten Boom's memoir told the story of her family, everyday working class people of Holland who, lead by their religious convictions, chose to secret eight Jews in their house during the Nazi occupation of Holland. Their actions eventually led to their arrest and Corrie's sister and father died in Nazi concentration camps, but she survived to tell their story. Nearly all the Jews sheltered by her family survived the war.

I remember as an impressionable young person, around age 11 or 12, reading and re-reading this story. I used a pencil to place a hashmark in the front cover each time I read it. The story seemed very important. I thought of Nazis as typical villains in movies, playing the dark counterpoint to larger-than-life heroes, such as Indian Jones or James Bond. But here was a story of regular people somehow brave enough to fight against Nazis in their everyday life. I read it over and over, trying to figure out what gave them their courage.

I lived in Russia as Fulbright scholar from 2006-2007, a time marked by a growing Neo-Nazi movement. I heard stories of persons of color- largely people of central Asian or African origin- violently attacked in the streets by young men roving in gangs, called "Skin-heads". I met two Angolan graduate students in Moscow who feared physical violence anytime they were in public. They told stories of their colleagues, sent to cities like Voronezh and St. Petersberg, where Neo-Nazism was even more prevalent, who were murdered in broad-daylight during the course of their academic studies. I wondered- how could a country nearly decimated by Nazis, who lost 20 million in that helping to defeat this defunct political ideology, how could this country allow the same ideas to resurface in their own midst? It seemed more than ironic, more than tragic. I thought when I returned to the United States, to the "West", to the "post-Renaissance", "post-Enlightenment" world I knew so well, that I would leave these frightening specters of the past behind.

Today I am waking up and reading about Neo-Nazis walking the streets of an American city, feeling confident and comfortable here. Comfortable telling other citizens that they do not have a right to be here. Confident enough to show their faces, to publish their ideas, to organize and meet in broad day-light. These villains are no longer confined to the history books, old movies, or post-Soviet Russia.

I thought, perhaps naively, that we had laws, as well as social and political norms that would not permit such a display of openly racist ideas. After all, our ancestors also fought and gave their lives to defeat this same hateful ideology. Unfortunately these ideas have tenacity, despite the historical record of depravity and violence that follow in their wake time and time again. They continue to appeal to uneducated, angry people in every generation. Those who feel entitled to something they did not earn, those who think the color of their skin or the country of their birth or family origin should grant them rights and privileges that should be denied to others. Those who make themselves feel powerful by threatening and committing violence against innocent people.

While I could spend the rest of this day feeling depressed, I will not spend any more energy on sadness. I will remember instead the everyday heroes, who have stood up to hatred and violence, who are also part of every generation. I remember Corrie Ten Boom and her family, members of what Jewish scholars term the "righteous among the nations". I remember my grandfather, a young man from New Hampshire, drafted into the Army communication unit, deployed to Europe, and the sacrifices he and his family made.

I remember the regular, everyday people of every generation all over the world, who will not tolerate these doctrines, who will resist them, because they go contrary to every value of human decency, fairness, and righteousness. I trust people who have common sense, who have kindness in their hearts, who are not afraid.