This week, news broke about the retaliatory kidnapping and murder of a Palestinian kid. Again I silently cringed at the thought of child murder. And again, almost on cue, my Facebook feed filled with posts from other friends (this time Arabs), protesting the murder of children on humanitarian basis.
I admire activists. I wish I had the energy or the audacity to get out there and deliver a message, take a stab at changing the world. But there is a fine line between humanism and racism, and when you start practicing “selective humanism”, channeling your sympathy according to the race or nationality of the victim, in my mind you have crossed the line.
Not one of my friends protested child murder when the murderer was “one of their own”, and the slain child of the other group. NOT ONE OF YOU! Yet when the crime was reversed, suddenly everybody turned into a sensitive peace-loving tree-hugging Bambi bursting with respect for the sanctity of life.
Even more indecorously, some Facebook “friends” had the nerve to justify the other murder, on retaliatory grounds, or on whatever grounds, while at the same time condemning the carbon-copy murder by hallucinating moral differences between the two crimes.
Yes, I’m talking about you! Shame on you! Using the blood of children as ink to exchange politically-driven propaganda.
Unless you protested both murders with equal veracity, sincerity, and zeal, know that you aren’t fooling anybody. You’re not an activist. What you are is just another hypocrite!
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