In response to the county supervisors’ question at a meeting, what can county government do to protect people from violent actions, here’s an answer.
One thing all of us can do to help is to pay attention to our words. The last outpost of civility is our acknowledging our human sameness, but this can be removed by language.
Thomas Jefferson discontinued diplomacy when the Muslims, when asked why they were commandeering American ships and ransoming the crews, was told that all non-Muslims faced this fate. He sent the Marines.
This trouble with language was also exposed when the Germans made their race the only race and reduced others to the level of animals in speech, thereby removing their humanity.
To cease demonizing other Americans can begin here in our own neighborhood and can be encouraged by our representatives. Language creates limits that can create laws and just as effectively can be used to dissolve responsibility. Naming some of our society as Nazis, fascists, farm animals and so on can dissolve responsibility toward their humanness and lead directly to permissive violence.
