The Marine and former weapons inspector opens his Christmas Day offering, “In Search for Empathy” by quoting U.S. Army psychologist, Captain G.M. Gilbert, author of Nuremberg Diary, on his conclusions after interviewing Nazi leaders on trial in Nuremberg after World War II: “I was searching for the nature of evil, and I now think I have come close to defining it. A lack of empathy. It’s the one characteristic that connects all the defendants, a genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow men. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy.”
Ritter’s message is built around the moving story of his not-easy encounter in 1997 with an Iraqi mother whose daughter, Zaynab, had died under the effects of U.S. sanctions. That story is better read than retold, but he draws an important conclusion from that and a few other such experiences.
“If the lack of empathy is the principal characteristic of evil, then the ability to empathize must be the trademark of good,” Ritter writes. “This Christmas season finds the world engulfed in conflict, with tragedy playing out before our very eyes daily. We wouldn’t be human if we start to become immune to the horror, our senses overwhelmed by the repetitive scenes of death and destruction that we are constantly confronted by. Being physically separated from violence, we have the option to tune out the unpleasant sights and sounds of human suffering.
“After all, how many times can we see the torn, lifeless body of a child pulled from the rubble of Gaza and Beirut? Or from the wreckage of homes in Ukraine and Russia?
“Overdosing from senseless tragedy leads to the numbing of our soul, the hardening of our heart, the diminishment of our humanity. But we must endure, for no other reason than to make sure that those young lives lost did not perish in vain….
“We must remember Zaynab, just as we must remember every child whose life was taken from this earth too soon. We must empathize with those who have lost their loved ones because of the senseless wars fought by men. We must make sure that the children who are alive today have the chance to grow up and raise families of their own. Otherwise, we become the tools of evil, if not evil itself. Merry Christmas.”
