Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Tattoo for Humanity

Just a little over a week ago a lone gunman drove several hours from his southern Missouri home and murdered three people he thought were Jewish. When he was arrested, he could be heard yelling “Heil Hitler”.

The next day, I decided to get my second tattoo.

I commissioned the first tattoo in honor of my 30th birthday. It is a small Jayhawk, placed on my right hip. I knew that I would always love my alma mater because a college education represented growth, opportunity and choices for my future.

Even though I’ve thought about getting another one over the years, I had yet to find anything compelling enough to undergo the needle again. Although tattoos are a raging fad for the current generation (just ride down the Niangua River in southern Missouri on a hot summer afternoon….it looks like a Sons of Anarchy convention for Americans under 30), I’ve always felt that in order to permanently mark your skin it needs to be something deeply personal, something you will never regret, and something you are doing for yourself and not for attention or at the urging of someone else.

This is why it has taken almost fifteen years to decide on number two.

My new tattoo was designed by myself & Gary Barber (aka: Inkslinger). It is a Star of David. Inside the star is a blue peace sign and on top are the letters “M” and “B”. On the bottom is the initial “MJ”. The “M” represents my daughter, Marah. The “B” is in honor of my son, Brody. The “MJ” is a reminder of Mary Jean, the grandmother who raised me.

As for the Star of David? I’m not Jewish. This isn’t the symbol of a religion I was raised in. But to me, this doesn’t matter. This star represents two things I never want to forget.

The Star of David is thought to represent many things, but most commonly the twelve tribes of Israel. In Kabbalah, the origins of which are deeply Jewish, the two triangles represent the dichotomies inherent in man: good vs. evil, spiritual vs. physical, etc.

I like the Kabbalah definition. It is closer to the real reason I chose this symbol and wanted it to be etched permanently on my body.

The Star of David is tightly woven into the history of WWII and the Holocaust. Because of this, and because of how the history of the Holocaust affects me so deeply, it has come to represent two separate and very different things.

The yellow Star of David patch was a sign of man’s most base ugliness; of the propensity to perpetuate and act upon his or her most violent and cruelest desires. It also represents our willingness and desire to look the other way and even, in many cases, to partake in bringing harm to humanity; to be cowards when others are being hurt and to choose the easy path of least resistance. When I look at the tattoo I am compelled to remember that unless we take care of each other and unless we change the things that create this evil and hatred, we will simply continue to harm our fellow humans.

You see, the Star doesn’t remind me of racism towards Jews exclusively. It represents the German belief that anyone who wasn’t a white Aryan was trash. This encompassed all other humans who weren’t like them, including developmentally and physically disabled people; Romani; homosexuals; Slavs; Poles; Serbs; Russians; people of color; anyone considered “left”, such as communists/socialists/trade unionists; Freemasons; Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Spanish Republicans.

I never want to forget what human beings can do to each other. I never want to forget that average citizens are capable of turning a blind eye…and I never want to forget why I believe in humanity and equality for all. This tattoo helps me to remember that.

The down side is that when I look at the Star on my leg every morning, I feel sadness and anger. I feel disgust. I experience overwhelming feelings of demoralization in light of the things still happening around the world and, yes, even in our own country.

The Star does more, though. It also represents the very opposite of hatred.

This tattoo represents a culture that survived the most horrifically conceived and executed genocide imaginable. To me, because of the connection to the Holocaust, the Star represents all of the unique populations and people who were murdered and persecuted. They lived, they thrived, and they move among us today. The reason they have survived is a testament to the thousands of people who did not remain silent, who did not fear the consequences of taking action to save and protect their fellow man, and because, in the end, sacrifice, love and compassion were all stronger than hatred and violence.

The blue peace sign within the Star is also highly significant. It was placed there to fuel hope, optimism and action.

I chose blue because it is an important color within many different religions …most religions, in spite of their differences, are spiritual havens that tie us together and provide positive guidance.

But, quite simply, there is another reason I chose blue as the only color added to the tattoo. My Grandmother Mary Jean was the most compassionate and giving person I’ve ever known; she saved me, loved me unconditionally…and taught me to be, above all else, kind. Blue was the piercingly deep shade of her eyes and it was her favorite color; the same similar color of my husband Brian’s eyes.

When I look at the Star, I am reminded that good eventually wins out over evil. Adolf Hitler was defeated. Pol Pot is dead. Stalin’s violent and tyrannical Russia, although still in turmoil, no longer hosts Siberian death camps. Jim Crowe is no longer legal in the United States. And Frazier Glenn Cross, last weekend’s shooter, is sitting behind bars, never to walk the streets as a free man again. There is still so much evil in the world, though. It is like a weed…when one dies, another pops up to take its place.

So many murders…so much cruelty…so much pain and heartache…all at the hands of evil individuals who are now rotting in the ground and who are despised historically. And yet, somehow, murder and anger and racism and hatred continue.

We must learn from this hate. We must never stop fighting it. And we must never remain silent.

The tattoo is my own intimate reminder of this. And the initials are my own personal reasons for pledging to do the one singular and most important thing each of us can do to stop current atrocities, to attack the building blocks of hatred and violence that are currently underway within our own country and the rest of the world, and to teach our children to be better.

That one thing is to speak out. It is to explore what we say and what we share with others that could, sometimes unbeknownst to ourselves, fuel anger and hatred toward our fellow man. It is to search deep within ourselves with the honest goal of identifying our own personal biases and anger towards others who are different, or who are unknown to us, or who live in far away unfamiliar places….to ask those tough questions of ourselves regarding true humanity and brotherhood towards all living beings.

Until we reach a point when we quit seeing color, race, religion, sexual orientation, political persuasion or disability when looking upon another person then there will still be ugliness, horror and violence perpetrated on each other.

The Star, peace sign, and initials are reminders every day to never forget, to always have hope, and to never be silent.

What will your reminders be?

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