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It seems to be our human nature to blame someone when events take a turn that we don’t like. When deadly contagious disease struck the ancient Greeks and Romans, they thought that humans had displeased the gods, and the gods were punishing the human race. 

During the Middle Ages, there was a time now known as the “little ice age.” The summer weather in Europe was cold and wet for years or decades at a time. Crops failed and people suffered from hunger and starvation. People blamed minority elements of the population for the bad weather, and they burned those unfortunate humans at the stake for causing the weather change. Later, the bubonic plague, also known as the “black plague,” swept Europe and elsewhere. The plague devastated the population. The dominant elements of European society blamed the least influential members of society, and they burned those humans at the stake for causing the plague.

In 1632, the devoutly religious citizens of Salem, Massachusetts were consumed with the notion that some members of their community were witches. The citizens of Salem placed blame on innocent people. People were arrested and jailed if someone merely accused them of being a witch. The political leaders conducted trials, the infamous Salem Witch Trials. Nineteen people were found to be witches, and those unfortunate human beings were executed. One person was killed because he refused to stand trial.

During the 1920s, the Prohibition era, a reincarnation of the Ku Klux Klan surged through the midwestern United States, gaining great influence among politicians and law enforcement agencies. The Klan blamed Black citizens, Catholics, Jews, and immigrants for America’s problems. The Klan also supported eugenics laws that resulted in the involuntary sterilization of some 70,000 citizens.

In 1921, a newspaper in Tulsa, Oklahoma, published a false report that a Black man had molested a white girl. A mob surged through the Black community, burning 1,200 homes, 40 businesses, doctors’ offices, and the hospital. Thousands of people were suddenly homeless, and historians estimate that 300 people died in the carnage. The mob needed someone to blame.

When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, it triggered suspicion about the Japanese living on the United States west coast and in Hawaii. Were they saboteurs? There were about 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry living on the west coast, mostly in California. Eighty percent were American citizens. Rumors and suspicions about acts of sabotage and disloyalty spread. The rumors were totally false, and government officials attempted to counter the rumors but without much success. Prominent journalists Walter Lippmann and Westbrook Pegler fed the fear mongering with false reports and alarmist columns. Political pressure became intense, and President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which, although deceptively worded, put 120,000 citizens of Japanese ancestry, including children, in internment camps for three years. They lost everything they couldn’t carry to their places of internment. None were ever convicted of an offense. Those innocent people were blamed for a serious offense and punished, but none of them were guilty.

History buffs may know about the Nuremberg Trials where members of the Axis powers were tried for war crimes committed during World War Two. Hideous crimes had been committed. We might be wise to remember, however, that it is “the victor who tries the vanquished.” Had the Allied powers lost the war, it might have been Americans who were blamed and tried for war crimes. We did firebomb cities in Japan and Germany, extensively, before we dropped atomic bombs on cities in Japan.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nephew of President Kennedy, has gained a significant following by blaming childhood vaccinations for causing autism. The scientific community finds no evidence for his claim.

Ten Commitments for

the Twenty-first Century

*I shall accept responsibility for all that I do or fail to do.

*I shall practice and promote courtesy in my relationship to my fellow citizens.

*I shall endeavor to leave humanity and the environment in better condition than when my career began.

*I shall strive to maintain personal, face-to-face, human contact in my business and community affairs, especially in the electronic age.

*Though I shall express my own beliefs, I shall also gracefully tolerate people whose beliefs differ from mine.

*I shall acknowledge that my accomplishments depend, in part, on the many contributions and sacrifices of others.

*I shall not be awed by celebrity.

*I shall remember that some media may not be reliable sources of decision-making information.

*I shall not knowingly degrade my health.

*I shall support American democracy and oppose all attempts to subvert it.