torture

Last night at OSU Rev. Dr. William Schulz told stories of torture and horror, of soldiers killing young girls, adults poking the eyes out of children, of the slavery that exists in the world. Today, in the 21st century. This morning I try to find words but I feel speechless. Is this what it is to be human? My friend Dr. Bill Ferrell says that humans have evil as part of their genetic code and that each generation must fight it, that as soon as we stop the battle the evil will return. Is that what is happening? But we must also have goodness in our genetic code, the desire to combat the evil, the stomach turning response to hearing these stories. Are the words of God and the words of Satan equally printed upon our cells? Do the torturers realize what they are doing? We came home from the William Schulz lecture and watched the end of a movie about the Holocaust. I was reminded that the evil returns in cycles again and again and again. I scratch my head and wonder how we became a nation that creates terror and perpetrates torture? How did we lose our way and return to this evil again?