Unchecked Ignorance and Fear

When I was a young girl, I read a great deal about World War II, including books on Adolf Hitler, Karl Adolf Eichmann -- famed for being the "architect of the Holocaust" -- and other historical accounts about Nazi Germany and The Third Reich. At times, what I read tore at my sensibilities.

The book that left it's greatest impression on me was the Diary of Anne Frank. Her story was troubling for me to read on many levels because she was a young girl just like me and was swallowed up by demons of the most horrible hells. We were young girls who were supposed to be footloose and fancy free without a care in the world.

Reading Anne's diary was sometimes an arduous task as I did not necessarily want to delve too close into the pages. If I turned to the next page or read through to the end of the next paragraph, would it be there? Will this part outline in graphic detail that Anne was found, taken, tortured and ultimately killed in some horrid concentration camp? Is this the gory part?

There were moments when I wanted to be hopeful that she would be saved by a cadre of American soldiers, proudly holding up the American flag, James Cagney marching in the lead singing, "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy ... Yankee doodle do or die. A real live nephew of my Uncle Sam. Born on the fourth of July." And the cavalry marches in to save the day, Busby Berkeley style, singing "Over there ... over there ... Send the word to beware over there ... That the Yanks are coming. The Yanks are coming. And we won't be back 'till it's over, over there." All is well.

It was that imagery that kept me on solid footing, not allowing fear to overtake me. This was Anne's story and not mine so I must be safe. After all, I had the long stretch of white sandy beach bays of Cooney Island, the laughter and roar of the crowds at Steeple Chase, cotton candy, Nathans' hot dogs, Jimmy Stewart and it really was a wonderful life. I was safe, at least I thought I was supposed to be safe. So where was the sense of dread, the fear, the cold, heartless feeling of doom coming from?

As I cautiously read each line, turned each page, I found myself examining those fears, but not of my own choice. It was Anne's life-force that was compelling me to examine them in all their rawness. The realization that Anne would never be free again to go outside in the sunshine, or hear birds sing, or laugh out loud as hard as she could until her sides ached. To blurt out silly phrases that young girls often do, just because. That Anne would never again put on a pair of roller skates and whiz through the streets, the wheels rumbling low on the pavement, her swift reaction to ensure her balance when the road took a sudden turn or became too bumpy. All that was gone just to be safe. Anne's "safe" was undoubtedly sinister and mean. The horrible twist of fate of being found not by accident but by betrayal. And once taken only to die just weeks before the British army arrives. Time to close the diary. Time to think happy thoughts. Time to go play. Where's James Cagney when I need him.

It struck me like a brick that while we were learning about World War II and the rise of Adolf Hitler and he had done to a group of people because they were of a different background and ethnicity -- we were learning about ignorance in it's worst form. Anne and her family did not live in Germany where she was born. They lived in the Netherlands and that did not protect them because Hitler invaded other countries, seeking out this particular group of people doing things to them that was too horrible to read about, to repeat, or try to comprehend.

I became angry because I realized that where Anne lived was irrelevant due to a small group of people that reached out to the lowest elements of human nature -- fear and ignorance -- and they would not stop until Anne, her family, and others like them were dead. What came popping out of Anne's diary and got up into my face was that there was no "safe," because ignorance, when it becomes cancerous and unchecked, has no boundaries.

Here we are again with a pivotal moment in history and the diary of a young girl whom I never met (and who died before I was born), still haunts me. And part of that is not just because of what happened to Anne Frank and to so many like her, it is because ignorance is still trying to infect our society with its deadly venom. Like 99.9% of all cancers, it starts as a tiny growth from within. And if not checked, it spreads until it consumes it's host.

Fortunately, the story of Anne Frank and others with similar stories, are still alive within us. They cause us to stop and reflect on that which is noble and just within our society versus that which can become cancerous. They cause us to recognize the difference between practical measures that will benefit us all and the misguided tactics of a snake oil salesman.

We need to visit her life often to remind us of what ignorance can look like when it goes horribly awry. Whether it is the unsafe usage and deployment of a test nuclear missile, or the unlawful seizure of a news reporter who is tried and convicted without representation on false charges, or of a political party that chooses to ignore the truth of a matter and instead spread fear and ignorance by reaching out to the basest elements of their constituents for their own political gain, we must be constantly aware of ignorance and keep it in check by responsibly calling it out when we see it.

Call Out:

On April 15th, Former Rep. David Davis (R-TN), Representatives R. Corker (R-TN), J. Chaffetz (R-UT), R. Bishop (R-UT), T. Tiahrt (R-KS), S. Graves (R-MO), J. Fleming (R-LA), A. Crenshaw (R-FL), R. Latta (R-OH), J. Shadegg (R-AZ) , S. Myrick (R-NC), W. Posey (R-FL), L. Gohmert (R-TX), D. Rehberg (R-MT), J. Kingston (R-GA) and T. Rooney (R-FL), Gov. Perry (R-TX) and Gov. M. Sanford (R-SC), and other elected officials either spoke at an anti-tax "tea party" or sent someone from their office to represent them, as well as encouraged their constituents to attend parties. Much of these events were more about bashing President Obama than anything else. The facts and the truth were no where to be found.

Moreover, the above congressional officers' and governors' negative rhetoric has naturally appealed to the gun rights militia groups, secessionist groups and neo-Nazi groups, i.e., those living on the fringe of our society. Is this what Congresswoman Bachmann means by constantly referring to "we are armed and dangerous."

It is time for these Republican leaders to stop lying to their constituents and the American people. It is time for the rest of us to get actively involved so that the truth drowns out the negative rhetoric.