Amid all the slights and grievances, real and perceived, between conservatives and liberals in America, you might imagine some common baseline moral sentiments—like, say, mourning a young American woman killed in ISIS custody. But to some well-compensated mavens of the right, she’s just a dead “bitch.”…. The family of Kayla Mueller confirmed this week that she was dead, after a year and a half in captivity, held by the Islamic State in Raqqa, Iraq…. You’d think that the plight of a young American woman held by gnarly Islamist guerrillas considered too extreme for Al Qaeda would evoke sympathy from all corners. But among hardcore right-wingers who are more pro-Israel than thou, Mueller was a treasonous terror-lover who got what she deserved. Because, you see, she had sympathy for Palestinians.
One of the trends that I find truly disturbing is the tendency (primarily on the Right, but the Left isn’t pristine) to completely dismiss the humanity of a person if their beliefs happen not to mirror those of the person passing judgment. Sometimes it can take a truly vile turn, as it has in the aftermath the death of American aid worker Kayla Mueller, and it saddens me that one human can find it within themselves to be so thoroughly and completely disrespectful.
Yes, Kayla Mueller was murdered by ISIS. She was an aid worker for Doctors Without Borders in Syria. Mueller was in Syria because she thought she could help. That she had “sympathy for Palestinians” is a matter of personal philosophy, not a commentary on her worth as a human being. Evidently, those who’ve seen fit to pass judgment on her lack one very human quality- compassion. I’d say that they should be ashamed of themselves, but that presupposes they actually possess the ability to feel shame. For them, everything is political, and those with the temerity to hold differing opinions are viewed as subhuman and unworthy of the respect one would accord to those who think “correctly”- i.e., as they do.
Regardless of how the trolls might feel about Mueller, she had a family who loved her and friends who miss her. It shouldn’t be too much to expect that these “patriots” display the common decency to refrain from pouring salt in the wounds of those who loved and now mourn her? How thoroughly devoid of humanity must one be to piss on her memory because you despise her beliefs? Is this the sort of behavior you’d be proud to model to your children? One of the trolls, Joel Pollak, presents himself as “Writer, Dad, Husband, Editor of Breitbart California”…and I have to wonder what his wife and children might think of his disgustingly mean-spirited and disrespectful behavior.
Mueller was murdered by terrorists. Her politics, whatever they may have been, have no bearing on the worth of her life or the amount of respect she should be shown in death. Sometimes it’s not about politics. Sometimes it SHOULDN’T be about politics. Sometimes it about family and friends mourning the loss of someone they loved…and NO ONE has the right to piss on her memory, whatever the reason or justification may be. If you can’t see your way clear to understanding that, I’d submit that YOU are the problem. I truly feel sorry for those who love you, because they clearly don’t understand what a miserable excuse for a human being you are.
