Monday, November 11, 2013, day 315. This eve, arctic-lidded penumbra slid westward over the Mississippi Valley as I processed my electronic records, the half-moon crisply white above dark bluff. I emerged from the clinic in woolly-fluffed layers, be-capped and be-gloved, November-chilled cheeks plowing north towards home. Kristallnacht, German for broken glass night, an outpouring of vitriol, hatred, and violence, marked the acute rise in state-tolerated destruction of property and life in Germany. Many sources will neglect to mention that gay individuals ,already having been marked by the Nazi culture as unfit and unde-sirable, suffered the same terror and abuse. The precipitating factor, touted by Nazi officials, was the shooting of a minor diplomat in Paris by the son of a couple who had been swept out of their homes in eastern Germany and corralled in a camp. Imagine being rooted out in your own country and killed and persecuted for the very essence of your identity. As a gay man, I mark this day with education, and exhortation: I must look into my own heart, every day, and remember the preciousness of all human life, each time I look into the eyes of another.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 01:42:13 +0000