By Dennis Prager
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
In both personal and public life, you can know a great
deal about a person or a group if you know what most bothers them -- and what
doesn't bother them.
A news item this past week made this point with glaring
clarity. It reported a meeting that the United Nations Assistant
Secretary-General for Human Rights had on Friday.
Before revealing the subject of that meeting, let's
review for a moment what is happening in the world regarding human rights.
North Korea continues to be an affront to the human
species. That North Korea, whether or not it had nuclear weapons, is not a
central concern is an indictment of humanity.
That the West, with the noble exception of Canada under
Stephen Harper, is appeasing the dictators of Iran, is an indictment of the
West.
Add to this list the U.N.'s and the world's ignoring of
the Chinese government's continuing suppression of all dissent and its
decades-long violent eradication of Tibet's unique and ancient culture.
Then add the slaughter of millions in Congo over the last
decade, the 100,000-plus killed in Syria just last year, most of them civilians
killed by their own government, and the blowing up, burning alive, and
throat-cutting of untold numbers of innocent people by violent Islamists on a
daily basis.
In other words, if what bothers you most is evil -- the
deliberate infliction of cruelty on people by people -- North Korea, Congo,
China, Syria and radical Islam will bother you more than anything else on the
world scene.
So, then, what was the subject of the meeting convened
Friday by the United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights?
The alleged racism of the name of the National Football
League's Washington team, the Redskins.
That's right. All these horrific evils are happening as
you read this, and the second-ranking official in charge of human rights at the
United Nations had a meeting about the name Washington Redskins.
The U.N. is not alone in paying undue attention to the
Redskins' name. The left in the United States is nearly obsessed with it.
President Barack Obama has spoken out against it. The Washington Post editorial
board has demanded that the team drop the name. In the herd-like way that
governs media, innumerable columnists and sports writers have written
passionate columns against the name, and increasing numbers of sports writers
have vowed to never again write or speak the name.
This left-wing obsession with a non-evil exemplifies the
left's moral universe. That universe is preoccupied with lesser evils while
nearly always ignoring the greatest evils.
Preoccupation with real evil is the greatest difference
between right and left. The right was preoccupied with fighting Communism while
the left (not liberals such as JFK, but the left) was preoccupied with fighting
anti-Communists.
The right today is preoccupied with fighting Islamism;
the left is preoccupied with fighting "Islamophobia."
One way of putting it is that the right is preoccupied
with fighting evil and the left is preoccupied with fighting those who fight
evil.
The right is preoccupied with defending Israel against
those who wish to annihilate it. The left is preoccupied with Israeli
apartments on the West Bank.
This difference was made manifest last week in the
address given by the one world leader to exemplify the right's preoccupation
with evil, Canada's prime minister, Stephen Harper. Talking about all the
condemnations of Israel, Harper said:
"Think about the twisted logic and outright malice
behind that: a state, based on freedom, democracy and the rule of law, that was
founded so Jews can flourish as Jews, and seek shelter from the shadow of the
worst racist experiment in history, that is condemned, and that condemnation is
masked in the language of anti-racism. It is nothing short of sickening."
Only a conservative leader would have the moral courage
to say that. Because while the right fights evil, the left fights the Redskins.
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