In 1992, Anna Quindlen wrote an essay called "Public and Private" that won the Pulitzer Prize.
It is incredible, the way that bigotry lives from one century to the next, masquerading as solemn truth and caring goodness when it is absurd lies and vicious evil. Bigotry seems to be a uniquely human virus, a societal mental illness that crazes groups of people into believing that their victims are their persecutors.
There is more horrible vomit-coughing outside my window while I write this.
Bigotry can attach itself to almost any object. The way in which it thrives, year after year, and is always ready to erupt in conditions favorable to it, speaks to the way it satisfies the minds of ignorant people, who revel in their self-satisfied hatred of other until their awareness of their own flaws is obliterated.
The hope that Ms. Quindlen expressed at the end of her essay seems unlikely to be realized within the time frame she described. 22 years later, not enough people are laughing.
Copyright L. Kochman, December 18, 2014 @ 7:57 p.m.
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