A world where dehumanising humans is acceptable

This morning, I was listening to a Ukrainian man speaking from his new home in Tel Aviv, where he had moved with his wife to escape the war in Ukraine. 

He said that because Iran bombed Israeli civilians in Tel Aviv, the retaliation on Iran should be in full force.

I heard this statement and my brain stumbled. The hypocrisy of his statement took all the oxygen out of my next breath.

It then evoked a question in me. 

What kind of people does this man consider have the right to exist as civilians?  

Without speaking to him, the only conclusion I could reach was that this man must believe that some humans do not fit in his category of civilians. Or, said another way, there are humans who look a particular way, and there is everyone else. 

It is almost impossible to climb this mountain of belief. To truly comprehend that some people think other people are not worthy of being counted as part of the human race based on the amount of melatonin in their skin, or their gender orientation, or gender, or the clothing they wear. Yet it has always been this way, as far back into history as we go.

Yet our leaders speak of other humans as animals almost every day.

We must confront this terrible and amplifying truth that whole sections of our world see most of the rest of the world as lesser, not even human. Not deserving of existence.

Only through really confronting this can we begin to build better.

Photo June 15th 2025, Article written June 15th 2025