Tick Tock

I retreat into very sad states sometimes.  Today, it progressively became worse as I started to watch "Everything is Illuminated." It's a beautifully cinematic film about a Jewish boy who travels to Ukraine to find the story of his grandfather.  It only references the horrors that the Jews endured during those years, but nevertheless it just broke my heart.  I still am unable to fathom the pure distaste one can have for a single group of people, based on their identity.  The pain, the destruction, the complete disregard for others.  

This idea of an "other."  It's always among us.  It literally causes me pain.  I think about the babies who are born into the minority group in some forgotten land, who have no choice about their ethnicity, their blood, their gender, their race, but yet are forced into horrific circumstances and are at the brunt of so much hostility and mutilation.  It's unfair.  It's completely disgusting the power we have over each other.

And it all comes down to identity.  Sure, similarities in genetics can group people together, but it is the weight we place on the symbolic nature of an identity which is the root of division.  It is what we create as a society which provides the differences.  We create the hate, but do we stop it?

I need to turn this anger into something good...