Every day, almost every major news network on earth covers some aspect of the American War on Terrorism. The papers are full of articles about military strikes, diplomatic relations and the economic ramifications and it can be easy to sit back and wonder if perhaps things have run their course. Often the thought that International forces in the Middle East will never find Osama bin Laden and the leaders of the Taleban can make us apathetic. We need to remind ourselves that these individuals have a lot to answer for.
Even before September 11th , other threats to humanity were obvious. On May 23, 2001 Taleban authorities required, by law, that all Hindus sew a strip of yellow cloth onto a shirt pocket for their own "protection" to identify them to authorities. The Taleban's intolerance towards other religions was peaking in their "Religious cleansing". Jews once faced this very same situation under the Nazis.
Can any of us forget the yellow star? It is not widely known that the pink triangle, now a symbol of gay rights and activism, was used to identify gay men during the holocaust. It is even less known that a black triangle was used to identify lesbians during that same time. Can we forget the lives lost in the German death camps?
The tragedy of human history is that while people have suffered due to intolerance and hate, nations who had the means and opportunity to intervene did not. It happened leading up to World War II and it happened again leading up to September 11th.
When people face daily oppression in our own nation and elsewhere it shouldn't take atrocities close to home to spark our passion for peace in this world.