Letters to the editor for Jan. 31

The Nigerian Prince

I don’t understand why 53 people who have worked as hard as they have to secure their spots in History -- because, let’s face it, politics is all about power and name recognition and being known to History -- are not fulfilling their oaths to the country and the Constitution. I capitalize the word to emphasize its meaning. I’m talking History.

How can 53 of the country’s supposedly “smarter” people behave as they have done? Can’t they see that they are being conned? These are people who would say “How could someone be stupid enough to be conned by the Nigerian Prince scam?” It’s exactly what’s happening to them. How can they possibly think good things will come of this, if I just do a few more stupid things.

These mostly fine people are destroying their careers for someone who is who he is. A self-serving narcissist with really small hands. I’m afraid they deserve it. And I’m afraid History will not look kindly on them.

Now we just have to hope. And please, please, please, please, please vote.

Holocaust Remembrance Day and stopping the slaughter

On Jan. 27, the world observed International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The date marked 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Hitler’s largest death camp. It’s an opportune occasion to reflect on how each of us can help end oppression.

A key question facing historians is how could an enlightened society that produced our civilization’s greatest philosophers, poets, and composers also produce its most notorious mass murderers? How could it get millions of ordinary citizens to go along? Was the Holocaust a peculiarly German phenomenon, or are other enlightened societies capable? And is it just about killing humans, or does it extend to other sentient beings?

Jewish Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer provided a clear answer when he wrote: “To the animals, all people are Nazis.” His message was that, even in our own country, we are willing to subjugate our own compassion and affection for animals to those of our society. We have allowed social norms to supersede our own.

It follows that the only way to end our own participation in oppression is for each of us to reclaim our own moral values. Our very first step should be to drop animals from our menus.