As a small child, I asked my Dad who served in WWII why soldiers called the Japanese “Japs” and worse names; and he explained: it is hard to kill another person, almost impossible to take human life. So soldiers use derogatory names which denigrate opposing soldiers to non-human status. Only after depriving the opposite side of their humanity can you kill them.
I noticed this during the Vietnam-Nam war when we used “ gooks ”. During the Iraq war, we used “towel heads” etc.
This is also what we did to justify slavery, using a word I can never utter, but so ingrained I do not need to tell you what it is. It is the same word we use to justify police brutality and murder of our fellow citizens. It is the word we use to justify our taking of Black lives ability to survive and thrive from cradle to grave post-slavery.
We may not use the word aloud but it has become part of our lexicon.
Some wars go on for hundreds of years. Some wars do not end by bringing home soldiers. But this war must end now. We must “bring back” law enforcement. To a place it has never been.
Instead, it has returned to the slave era of trackers searching out and punishing runners.
Instead we have a president, Vice-President, Attorney General and much of our populace, including police unions who have militarized our law enforcement. Instead, they militarize common citizens and encourage private militias armed for war.
It is no coincidence that we have allowed this to happen. Defund the militarization of law enforcement. Stop the militarization of private militias. End the war.
annarino writes 