In Memoriam

I received this email on March 19, 2014. The cartoon titled "Non-sequitur by Wiley" and the photo at the bottom of this page were both included in the email. The only text was a brief allusion to the considered importance of the subject matter to the sender, as the primary message itself is pretty self-evident. While the "trail of Tears" pales by comparison with the Holocaust, it was sufficient for me to see the parallels when any group of people begins to look upon others as disposable, instead of as human beings, and children of God.

(The text is reprinted on the right in case you have trouble reading it in the illustration)

NON-SEQUITUR BY WILEY

I’ve gotta tell ya, mister . . . that’s an awfully boring tattoo on your arm. It’s just a bunch of numbers.

Well, I was about your age when I got it, and kept it as a reminder.

Oh . . . a reminder of happier days?

No . . . of a time when the world went mad.

“Imagine yourself in a land where your countrymen followed the voice of political extremists who didn’t like your religion.

Imagine having everything taken from you, your entire family sent to a concentration camp as slave laborers, then systematically murdered. In this place, they even take your name and replace it with a number tattooed on your arm.

It was called the Holocaust, when millions of people perished just because of their faith . . .”

So you kept it to remind yourself about the dangers of political extremism?

No, my dear. To remind you.