OPINION:
Only in an upside-down world can Israel’s defensive response against homicidal zealots be seen as “genocide” (“Columbia graduate in zip-tie handcuffs rips up degree during commencement,” web, May 13). Hamas terrorists raped, tortured and murdered over 1,200 innocent Israeli men, women and children last October.
But in a world where good and evil have been reversed, the propriety of an action is no longer based on traditional understandings of right and wrong or by the Judeo-Christian standards that have served as the bedrock of Western jurisprudence and culture for hundreds of years. No, the new metric for determining what is right, good and virtuous comes not from the stone tablets passed down at Mount Sinai but from the intersectional pyramid of value and worth.
This pyramid is the product of a Marxist-“woke” worldview and is currently being spoon-fed to impressionable young minds in our public schools and institutions of higher learning. It assigns value based on variables such as skin color, gender, sexual preference and victimhood. Value and merit are determined by the number of variables one can check off. Gone are the days when individuals were seen as created equal with intrinsic dignity, value and worth.
As the pyramid assigns greater value to those with the most check marks, the horror of unprovoked, brutal attacks on innocent Israeli citizens is tempered by the lowly position they occupy as “White oppressors.” Whereas the barbarians who carried out the brutal attacks are seen as having greater moral agency since they hold minority status and are viewed as victims of colonial ambitions.
Efforts to supplant the transcendent values and moral ethic of the Judeo-Christian tradition are folly and will only result in another moment in history that future generations will be taught not to repeat — that is, if history is still being taught and not used as an opportunity to advance a Marxist agenda.
THOMAS M. BEATTIE
Mount Vernon, Virginia
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