Americans have a moral imperative to prevent Donald Trump and maga Republicans from normalizing evil behaviors

Echo opinion letter published in the the Louisiana Times-Picyune NOLA newspaper: 

The term “the banality of evil” is a philosophical concept coined by Hannah Arendt*, a Jewish philosopher, after attending the trial of Adolf Eichmann, who sent millions of Jews to their deaths during the Holocaust during World War II.

Arendt concluded that individuals can commit hideous acts due to a failure to engage in independent thought and moral reasoning.

I am bothered that in today’s America, we have normalized and desensitized individuals to acts of evil. When cruelties are rooted in everyday routines and policies, they may be perceived as "normal" or even necessary, diminishing individual responsibility and moral awareness.

We expect evil to have a tail, horns and a pitchfork, appear in red or slither on the ground. It’s far more likely that it will look like your favorite uncle or your sweet grandmother. It just might cover itself in platitudes like “equality,” “social justice” and the “common good.” It could even be a prominent member of your church or in government.

The lesson is that ordinary people can do the wrong thing if they don’t step up to the moral imperative of reflective thinking.

This makes this process as much of a spiritual process as it is a political one. Questions that need to be asked are:

• Is there a willingness to challenge authority or question the status quo if it is believed to be leading to unethical outcomes?
• Are injustice and harmful behaviors being spoken out against, or is one choosing to remain silent, thereby allowing them to persist?
• Are the consequences of actions for others considered, or is the focus primarily on what I am told?
• Is a "deep and compassionate fighting spirit" being nurtured to keep goodness alive, or is one becoming complacent in the face of injustice?

You need to think for yourself in order to describe the reality you find yourself in, so that you can then resist it.

From Sister Beth Mouch in New Orleans

*From Nazi-Occupied France to New York

While in France, Hannah Arendt (1906-1975)worked for the organization Youth Aliyah, which rescued Jewish youth. There she met the man who would become her second husband, Heinrich Blücher. 

Arendt was imprisoned in a detention camp in Gurs in southwest France. After escaping, she and Blücher fled Nazi Europe, and in 1941, they arrived in New York. Through the 1940s, Arendt wrote essays on anti-Semitism, refugees, and the need for a Jewish army for Aufbau and other German émigré journals. She worked as an editor for Schocken Books and served as Executive Director of The Jewish Cultural Reconstruction organization. She and Blücher lived on Riverside Drive in NYC and in Kingston, NY near Bard College where Blücher taught for 17 years.