I am not Simon — by Guest Blogger Sadie

News travels at breakneck cyberspeed. Click and consume. The blur of bad news whizzes across my eyes:  I am a famed race car driver without a seat belt watching history. The curves are coming, my reflexes are challenged with each lap. After the first 20 or 30 laps, the course gives me a foolish sense of  security. Screeeeeeech! A car nearby has lost a tire.  I need a split second reaction. Wait….  They’ve raised the flag to slow down, so we all slow down. Green light is back on now, so I must stay on this track at full speed.  If I slow down too much I run the risk of being rear-ended or maybe blind-sided by the driver who wants to pass me. What happens if I don’t finish or win?  Am I just a statistic? Another driver going, going until gone.

I know it’s a long lead, but the driver is Simon Wiesenthal, Holocaust survivor, who pursued the worst of the human race and kept his promise, I will not forget you. He didn’t and he didn’t forget the Christians, Gypsies and all the other helpless and tortured victims. His life was dedicated to justice. Not just any justice, but documented and viable proof. Wiesenthal held the wheel of the euphemistic car relentlessly.

I am weary; I am not Simon. I do not see the character of Wiesenthal anywhere on the horizon. What I do see are little politicians, riding childhood trikes circling one another on their playground pretending to be grown ups in pursuit of imaginary enemies. Like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, who loaned money on the ‘no documents needed’ ‘no viable proof of income needed,’ they have made this their template and have turned it into their childhood version of foreign policy.

They will forget you.