so i get my newsweek yesterday, in the midst of watching the mayhem on tv; the issue was printed up before the tragedy occured. one of the weekly "articles" is called "a thousand words," and it is jsut a big picture with a tiny caption to explain. this week, the picture was of little girls, ages 6-8, bawling in terror as their mothers tried to lead them to school. they are irish, and catholic, and their school is in the middle of a protestant neighborhood. police were there to help hold back a crowd of angry protestants that were hurling rocks at the girls. the angry rock-throwing crowd looks like mothers and children and grandfathers.
the reason for the rock-throwing was that, earlier in the week, a protestant boy had been struck and killed by a catholic motorist.
i'm having trouble articulating exactly what i think... but that picture bugs me a lot. it reminds me of how a lot of people are behaving. the people who crashed the planes. the people who are celebrating the act. the people who think genocide is a solution. it is a type of dehumanization of the "enemy" and anything that looks, walks or talks like the enemy, that i have a hard time understanding. i think that it is this kind of hatred that is our biggest problem.
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