|
March 13, 2006
Hot…cold.
High…low.
Slow…fast.
Love…_______
How would you
fill in the blank? What comes to mind when you picture the opposite
of love?
If you chose
“hate” as the opposite of love, you have Merriam-Webster on your
side. Their exhaustive list of antonyms is a litany of hate:
abomination, hatred, loathing, rancor, allergy, animosity, antipathy,
aversion, disfavor, dislike, abhorrence, disgust, repugnance,
repulsion, revulsion, misanthropy.
Yet, as much as
I respect Merriam-Webster as an authority on language, there is a word
missing from their list.
______________________
In 1964, 38
residents of a
Queens,
N.Y., failed a test of love. In the following days, weeks, and
months, as their story was repeated in the news, no one could find any
example of hate, dislike or revulsion in the hearts of these people.
Yet, as
the ultimate example of man’s failure to love,
this story has
lived on for over forty years.
On another March
13th, in the middle of a quiet night, “along a serene,
tree-lined street in the Kew Gardens section of Queens, New York City,
Catherine Genovese began the last walk of her life.” Twenty feet from
her apartment door, “she took notice of a figure in the darkness
walking quickly toward her.”
Court testimony
at the trial held three months later confirmed the news stories that
had shocked a nation. One neighbor, Miss Picq, said that she saw
Catherine Genovese lying in the street. “The poor girl got up slowly,
walking to the parking lot,"
she said
tearfully.
"I heard
two last screams for help, but couldn’t see her then.”
Another
neighbor, Robert Mozer testified that he had yelled at the assailant.
“I hollered, ‘Hey get out of there! What are you doing?’ He jumped up
and ran like a scared rabbit, took off real quick,” Mr. Mozer told the
court. But the attacker returned.
In all, 38
neighbors of Catherine “Kitty” Genovese let her brutal murder occur
without as much as picking up the telephone to call the police. Over
thirty minutes passed. Kitty was stabbed 17 times under the windows
of her neighbors.
“We thought it
was a lover’s quarrel!” said one tenant. “Frankly, we were afraid,”
said another witness. One woman who didn’t want her name used said, “I
didn’t want my husband to get involved.” Others had different
explanations for their conduct. “We went to the window to see what was
happening, but the light from our bedroom made it difficult to see the
street.” There were lots of excuses. Maybe the most apathetic was the
person who told reporters, “I was tired.”
Kitty’s murder
has become a textbook case for sociologists, psychologists and
criminologists. They have their theories. They have their
explanations. Dr. Iago Galdston, a New York City psychiatrist said “I
would assign this to the effect of the megalopolis in which we live
which makes closeness very difficult and leads to the alienation of
the individual to the group.”
You could say
that. It’s just that Dr. Galdston, with all of his fancy words,
misses the key explanation.
The indifference
of these people was just as effective as the rage of the attacker in
bringing about the death of Kitty Genovese. They failed to love.
Love is known by
its action, not its feeling. Indifference, “marked by a lack
of concern for something,” is the ultimate choice to let harm happen
because we are not moved to love another human being as ourselves.
Love that leaves
us unmoved by the need of another human being is more than the absence
of love. Indifference is the opposite of love.
______________________
Jesus said love
one another. He didn't say love the whole world.
Mother Teresa
October 15, 2004
Where's Poppa?
October 22, 2004
Bringing Poppa Home
See Archives
for more past editorials.
_____________________ |
