Rev. Terry Jones is at it again. He got national attention for burning the Koran and now he will probably get attention for this latest stunt as well. The reason I am posting the story, is not because I think it is news. Rev. Jones is clearly a disturbed person. The reason I am posting the story is because, after I got past the sick feeling in the pit of my own stomach, I remembered my own silence when people hung Bush in effigy at rallies where I was speaking. I said nothing about the hateful signs of Bush, and so I am not innocent when I look at these disgusting images of Obama.
When any of us plant seeds of hatred, or stand by silently as others do in our name, we may not recognize our own hand in the process when the “other side” pays us back. Most will consider that all evil is born fully formed from the other side of the struggle. Few remember their own role in a game of tit for tat that escalates slowly, almost invisibly. Both sides will justify their own cruelty by the claim that the other side does much worse. The reason it is worse, of course, is that it is happening to us.