Muleskinner

Issue date: 11/3/05 Section: Opinion

"First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me."

--Martin Niemoller, Pastor, German Evangelical (Lutheran) Church

My mom has had only one concern for me as an out lesbian...that someone would try to hurt or be cruel to me because I am gay. I have told her time and time again that I am not afraid, "I work at a university where enlightened people respect others; I have rarely (if ever) heard of hate crimes (or even mean crimes) taking place against gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or allied students on campus."

I hope my mom doesn't ask me anytime soon if I feel safe...

Most of the time I have honestly believed what I was saying to my mom, but I would be lying if I didn't say that certain unpleasant thoughts had not entered my mind on occasion. I've wondered if I will ever walk to the parking lot to find by car defaced and covered in homophobic slurs. I've wondered if a group of people would ever get so angry (or threatened), generate a mob mentality and find the first 'out' person they saw to physically vent their anger. I've wondered if a passerby might spit on me and call me a dyke...and I have wondered if any of these things ever happened what would my peers, my students, my university administrators, my community do? Would they do anything? Would they be indifferent?

Elie Wiesel, holocaust survivor and a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, was asked to speak at the White House in April of 1999 . He chose to speak about "the perils of indifference." He was speaking to those who choose to not get involved, to those who believe it is 'not their battle to fight' (or those who just don't have the time). The way he defined indifference was as I had never thought about it before. He defined indifference as "a strange and unnatural state in which the lines blur between light and darkness; dawn and dusk; crime and punishment; cruelty and compassion; good and evil." The perils of indifference speak no less than to the mystery of humanity, "indifference reduces the other to an abstraction...and in denying their humanity we betray our own." Wiesel believed the reduction of 'the other' to something less than human allowed the mass genocides witnessed during the holocaust in WWII, Rwanda, Kosovo, and Ireland to occur. But indifference does not just allow the others to perish...it manifests itself in all those who are indifferent. By ignoring others humanity, we tear a part of ourselves.

Continued...

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