Συγχώρεση

"Όλα έχουν συγχωρεθεί"

"Δεν πρέπει να αγγίξουμε αυτούς τους τύπους στο Εβδομαδιαίο του Τσάρλη"...
"Αλλιώς, θα περάσουνε για μάρτυρες και, όταν θα βρεθούνε στον παράδεισο, οι μπάσταρδοι θα κλέψουν όλες τις παρθένες μας!

It's a strange world we live in, and every generation in every culture has said so for millennia. Some worlds are stranger than others, even if they are all in fact part of the One world across space and time. The link between them all is human nature and the human spirit, or lack thereof.

The challenge of our time is fanaticism and ignorance. Ignorance, after all, breeds fanaticism.

Ignorance of the fact that when an officer of the Law breaks the law by, for instance, performing an outlawed choke hold, should stand trial, regardless of the outcome of is illegal act, albeit as an innocent until proven guilty. Ignorance of the fact that when an officer of the law shoots and kills an unarmed man, that officer is held to a higher standard of abiding by as well as enforcing the law, and, therefore it is much more crucial for that officer to stand trial lest the evidence might prove him guilty.

Fanaticism that so easily confuses the blurry lines between being law abiding or living in a police state. Ignorance of how easily democracy and civil rights can be gone with the wind of conformism and obedience.

Ignorance of the fact that no progress would have ever been made without civil disobedience. Without questioning authority and its officers, elected or appointed.

Ignorance and fanaticism drive multiplying events across the planet, more, and more, from Ferguson to Paris. Dr King, Malcolm X, fought struggles we are still fighting today. Whether it is a Klansman in 1965 Alabama murdering a white woman for associating with black peaceful protesters, or a jihadist in the 2015 Paris massacre against free speech and freedom of the press, or a cop who is looking for two black men to pin a crime on in New Jersey on a Friday night, or whether it is the authorities of a Mediterranean state throwing refugees back in the sea...

We must never forget one thing. Democracy, civil rights, our very society depend for their existence not on our obedience but on our peaceful civil disobedience. Change has only come from disobedience throughout the centuries. The law, by definition is what must always evolve and change. If we do not fight for its evolution, what kind of a world are we shaping up for our children?

Those who have been wronged will feel wronged. Those who are poorer and with fewer opportunities than their equals only for the color of their skin, and the ghetto they live in, should not and shall not go gently into that good night. Rage. Rage. Rage against the dying of the light, against the darkness of ignorance and fanaticism.