Sometimes I think the world has always been crazy. If I go back to the time of my parents, their parents, I find story after countless story about those who are on the inside and those who are on the outside. It doesn’t always matter who the insiders are – they often have different faces and different policies – but those of us on the outside are always aware of being a bit different. When my mother said ‘You are as good as they are,’ the starting place was inevitably that some people didn’t think I was.

As Nietzsche says, that which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.

The problem is, it does sometimes kill. And not just kill. It maims, incarcerates, deforms, destroys. And it doesn’t matter how long ago it happened, whether it was over seventy years ago or seven days ago, it goes on. In memory. In history. In blood. It is always there.

Today  we have heard justification of waterboarding. Justifying torture. Justifying abusing outsiders because the insiders think it is necessary. Prejudice makes those who are outsiders just a little less human, their lives a little less precious. Then it’s easier to erode humanity, to hurt it, to destroy it in the name of difference.

Today I will stop thinking the world is crazy. I will hold that breath for a moment and  remember those who were victims of the craziness. And those who still are victims.

Na bister 500,000