Kol hakvód! All honor to you, Richard. You did what was right in the face of the convention of closing one's eyes to evil, all too common in the world. And you took a risk doing it.

Another article that needs translating into Hebrew for the many many Israelis who merely shrug their shoulders in the face of evil.

Richard!

This article is wonderful, and only reiterates something I've been feeling for a while!

Here's a brief example....
I work part-time at a restaurant. The other day I was having a conversation with another employee, we were talking about how slow business was going to be on this particular day and she asked me if it's always this way. I said yes, usually, she replied with "That's gay"...I'm assuming, meaning its a bad that the restaurant is slow, but using the term "gay" in a negative fashion. I was deeply offended by this comment. Now, I'm normally a very outspoken person, and I usually have no problem telling someone exactly how I feel, but I was so startled and shocked at this comment, and upset by it, I couldn't say anything. When I shared this with someone else, they told me I was being overly sensitive.

On another occasion, another employee at my job was making border-line racial slurs about some of the Mexicans that work with us. Again, those of us who reacted to this were told we were being overly sensitive.

But my response to that is this: what's wrong with people who are NOT sensitive to these issues? Whats wrong with the ones who can say negative things about another with no feelings of remorse? Wheres your reaction?

There's nothing wrong with me for being sensitive to the rights and feelings of others. The problem is with those who have no reaction at all.

Thank you for writing this Richard....it reminds me that not all of us have become out of touch with our humanity.

Everyone is medicated. In the material culture, all our things are just so much drugs. We can make a lot of rationalizations, but in the end most of us are just junkies. Even the guys with the loud stereos are just getting a buzz on to hide from their demons. It's no easy task to be alert while everyone else is getting juiced.

I have a said story to tell.

It was rush hour, I'm in D.C. bookin' for the train to Manassas. I'm down by the HUD building about a block from the rail station at L'enfant plaza. There's a homeless dude laid out by a bench, it wasn't an uncommon sight, but I passed and thought about how many drunks there were around the area since St. Elizabeths let them go, under orders from Mayor Marion Berry. The homeless and unwashed were on virtually every corner, with the cup out lookin for the next bottle.... anyway I'm in a hurry, a few comments cross my lips.

I make to the rail station and am standing with the crowd. I look over towards HUD and there's an ambulance there. A few minutes later someone comes up the ramp and exclaims that the ambulance in zipping up a stiff in a body bag down at the HUD building....

That's "livin in the city." I will never forget that day. I inhuman because of it. But how many people passed that dead man before someone (or a cop) checked? Who was going to check a dead drunk in DC? Who had latex gloves? The cop. There I go again. I'm hopeless.

Thanks all for your comments, Ruvy I think it needs translating into English, Chantel isn't it amazing how sensitive has become derogatory when it used to mean heightened awareness.

John I think there's a difference between deliberatly desensitizing yourself, or blocking your awareness so you don't feel anything and having to be medicated for feeling. The first people are making a conciouse decision to turn their backs, while the second have to be helped cope with what they refuse to turn away from. If there were less of the first there would be less of the second.

Joey, how many people would feel upset enough after the fact, like you, to question themselves. To me that's just as abnormal as anybody else. At least you bore witness and remembered. Will anybody else

Richard