Editor,
Last week, I read Scott Darnell's "Anti-Semitism alive today" in the Lobo and I realized how deep the cycle of violence cuts humanity.
Let me start by saying that I respect that Darnell used a pen instead of a sword to express his beliefs about the severe problem of anti-Semitism. And let there be no doubt it is a severe problem.
At the end of the column, Darnell used the analogy of a person being in a pit of lions with nothing but a shotgun to defend him or herself. The idea of the image was supposed to convey the situation that Israel finds itself in today. If they put down their shotguns, then the lions would rip them apart.
This is a very striking image of the catch-22 that Israel now finds itself. What worries me about this analogy and Darnell's column in general is the woefully apparent lack of solutions. The "us against them" attitude also has a long tradition - one that stretches back to our genes. To foster this attitude today speaks poorly of what most consider the highest evolved creature on earth.
Darnell hopes that comparing the Holocaust to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is undermining the significance or the horrors committed by the Nazi party.
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I agree it comes in close second to using the Holocaust to justify continued participation in the same cycle of violence and discrimination that all humans should strive to escape. There is no doubt that the Jewish people have suffered through the ages. I can say the same for American Indians and indigenous peoples throughout the globe. The question is: How will trying to measure suffering help to end it?
Instead of giving reasons for why Israel needs to hold onto its weapons, why not search for the real evils in the world and put an end to them? Hannah Arendt, a Jewish philosopher who fled Nazi Germany, attempted to do this by looking at the human condition that allowed the Holocaust to happen. She pointed the finger at bureaucratic society that allowed individuals to live without thinking.
So, instead of the listing the crimes committed against the Jewish people and advocating a bloody standoff, let us consider our whole human family and find ways to evolve past this cycle of violence.
I can think of one good starting point for the citizens of this country: destroy terrorist No. 1 - apathy. Thinking is good for your health.
Chris Young
UNM student
