Thursday, November 29, 2007

The Plague of Indifference

Elie Wiesel--Holocaust survivor, author, and Nobel Peace Prize winner--spoke at Birmingham-Southern College last night. Not surprisingly, he had some profound things to say about the state of the world.

This quote particularly jumps out:

"If someone is suffering and I don't respond, what kind of humanity do I have," Wiesel said. "The opposite of love is not hatred, but indifference. The opposite of education is not ignorance, but indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, but indifference. The opposite of life is not death, but indifference."

As I seek to apply those thoughts to my own experiences, I come up with these questions:

* Why did Alabama attorney William E. Swatek, who has a 30-year record of unethical conduct, file a bogus lawsuit against me? Was he counting on public indifference to let him get away with it.?

* Why did Shelby County judges J. Michael Joiner and G. Dan Reeves intentionally make unlawful rulings in the case and why did Alabama appellate judges allow those rulings to stand? Were they counting on public indifference to let them get away with it?

* Why did Karl Rove, Bill Canary, Alberto Gonzalez, and other GOP operatives turn the U.S. Justice Department into a cesspool of corruption, in the process turning men like Don Siegelman (in Alabama), Paul Minor, Wes Teel, and John Whitfield (in Mississippi) into political prisoners? Were they counting on public indifference to let them get away with it?

* And here's the biggie: Are Swatek, Joiner, Rove and Co. correct? Will public indifference let them get away with it?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Indifference is the new sin of today.Indifference is the breeding ground for intolerable acts against mankind,as evidenced in world events.It is most certainly a plague of unequaled proportions.I only hope that indifference can be replaced by caring,before it's too late !