MALEVOLENT OR INDIFFERENT
GAVEL GAMUTÂ By Jim Redwine
For thousands of years humans have pondered the same theological issues: Are there gods and, if so, are they benevolent, malevolent or indifferent towards humans? Of course, this debate can readily be applied to humans without reference to gods. How do we relate to one another? Are we generally good, bad or indifferent towards others?
In my work, I have almost never encountered a purely evil person nor an unfailingly good one. My experience has been that most of us fall into neither category. Pretty much we just muddle through life somewhere between these extremes while generally behaving rather indifferently to much of what passes by.
That basic human tendency is what leads us to put off until, maybe, later what we should address today. It is not a failure of conscience that results in inaction; it is simply more comfortable to ignore injustice than to address it, especially if it is a collective community injustice from long ago. Such is what has led us away from publicly recognizing the events of October and November 1878.
No one alive bears any direct culpability for injustices done to Jim Good, Edward Warner, Jeff Hopkins, William Chambers, Daniel Harrison (Harris), Sr., Daniel Harrison, Jr. and John Harrison in Posey County, Indiana in 1878 by virtually the entire white power structure. But we can now begin to absolve our community of one hundred and forty years of injustice and indifference. In other words, we should not look to the gods for absolution, it is we who must deliver ourselves.
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