Today's feature in Britannica Online: The holocaust story in which six million Jewish men, women, and children were murdered by Nazis and their all too willing accomplices for what? For being Jewish, unacceptably different. Other highlight of the day: This is the anniversary of the day in 1968 when Soviet tanks crushed the Czech reform government. For what? For daring to be independent. Today's story out of South Ossetia: Ossetes "purifying" their villages by murdering Georgian neighbors. Ossetia also yearning to be free and independent and pure. We will never find peace with one another until we come to grips with the seductive power of our differentiations - the depth and strength and meaning we find in being different and separate. I am not simply little old me; I am GERMAN, OSSETIAN, GEORGIAN, SUNNI, RUSSIAN, AMERICAN, JEW... with all the power and emotion I draw from that. Which, by the way, is power earned on the cheap; I have done nothing to earn it, simply having been born in this particular nest. So here's an exercise you might try. Visualize yourself stripped of all these identifications in which you take pride. Who are you without these?
I look in this morning's paper to see how many Olympic medals the US has won? Come on, Barry, what is this to you? You can't even do ten push-ups.
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