2001-04-04 - 19:24 MDST

--------THE WONDERING JEW--------

Hurt The Helpless

I guess that since the beginning of time abuse of one form or another has been the norm. What is slavery but abuse ? What happens to conquered people ? Plenty of that around in the Balkans this day and age.

An article in the Rocky Mountain News today about an appearance of Elie Wiesel at Regis University here in Denver, April 3. Rather than lecture he answered questions posed by the audience.

Here is what was printed at the beginning of the article. "April 11, 1945, is a date Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Weisel will always remember.

It was the date American soldiers freed him and other prisoners from the Nazi death camp of Buchenwald." "I never forgot the solders who came," he said. "They saw us, and they were weeping like children. They realized what humanity has done to humanity, by what they found was done to us." He said he and other Jewish prisoners didn't celebrate. "We said "kadish," the prayer for the dead," he said. "There was no joy, no dancing, just "kadish."

Two things he said remain with me yet, "I don't forgive, I "can't" forgive," he said. "Only the dead can forgive and they don't speak." He also said that he doesn't believe in collective guilt. "The children of killers are not killers, but children," he said.

He said he would never deal with those who claim that the Holocaust never happened. "I would never grant them the dignity of a debate," he said," drawing applause. "These people are morally sick. I will not grant them legitimacy."

Regis University is a Catholic institution, yet he was well received from what the article reported.

Sucked into the Holocaust horrors were children too. Whose only offense was being Jewish. Yet they died. . . . .

Still in this present time in the United States cruelty, abuse is inflicted on children. Some are babies not yet able to talk, whose brains are turned more or less into jelly by violence from an adult. Some have bones broken which left untreated, knitted in weird ways.

Children learn very quickly that they dare not say anything to anyone about what is happening to them either. The warped adults exact punishment from the kids.

Along with the physical abuse are the pychological abuses, which often affect a person for their entire lifetime. Their respect for themselves is slaughtered, never to be regained in many cases. Trust is burned to the ground. If they ever experience love it is usually a pitiful warped thing.

Young lives sent into the future, abused, afraid and distrustful. Young lives that should be surrounded by loving parents who safeguard their welfare and shower their attention and affection on them.

Then there are the children born to crack addled mothers, the ones born into the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Abuse ? In my book it is criminal abuse also.

There are many different kinds of abuse and combinations of abuses. Some poor kids get hit by it all. Not old enough to be blamed for a damn thing, but they are damned to death.

Did women have the right to claim "sexual harassment," in my Mother's time. Hell no ! Many women either put out, or were forced out of their jobs.

From the time I started school in the 1920's hazing and bullying took place in school. The stronger and more grouped together in "gangs" the more bullying happened to us little kids.

Yet, I didn't want to kill the ones who mistreated me. I just wanted them to leave me alone and go their own way.

The woman who took care (ha, took care of me ?) when Mama started back to work, applied the strap to my backside often, fed me castor oil as punishment and psychologically terrorized me all the time.

Even adults who are kind and loving often are cruel to their kids without realizing it. Often because they just don't listen and think about what their child is saying and what it means. Inattention, broken promises, "We'll see," "Not now," readily understood by a child as a measure taken by an adult to essentially mean NO.

Kids catch on and understand a lot more than they are given credit for and know the meaning of hypocrisy before they can spell the word. Very often I believe that children can sense what the real feelings are behind that Face of Hypocrisy.

All this ranting can be turned into a sincere plea, don't ever Hurt The Helpless . . . . .

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