Later this week is International Holocaust Remembrance Day (marked this year on Thursday) coinciding with the day the KZ Lager in Auschwitz was liberated in 1945. From that day onward through today (and beyond) there's been a competition between 'how could this have happened?' and 'it can't happen here.'
Sadly, in both instances all answers are wrong. It happened and will continue to happen until the end of time because we as a species have repeatedly demonstrated and proved that it can indeed happen here.
Some time ago, actually, late last spring, a millennium or so ago in modern-media elapsed time, a frightening report (not just to me as a former member of the active-duty US Air Force, as opposed to the passive-duty one I suppose) was offered by the Associated Press, not known for rabble-rousing, or broad-brushing anything, on the pervasive racism in our armed forces.
Perhaps because there's only so much a mind can absorb at one time, and we've been going a mile a minute in terms of news stories for quite some time, it seemed to disappear without a trace. Here it is again, and after you've finished reading, take another turn on 'how could this have happened?' and 'it can't happen here,' and see how comfortable your lethal indifference feels now.
-bill kenny
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