What part of the tragic history of Germany in the 1930s and 1940s did we not learn in high school?: The collectiveness and interconnectedness of suffering
Recently, I have read and listened to many sad testimonies in the news that begin with phrases like, “But I had no idea that…” or “Wait, I thought they meant ‘them,’ and not ‘me.'” And as the old church folks would say, “If you stop your car to pick up a hitchhiking satan, know that he is not content to stay in the passenger seat; no, he wants to get behind the steering wheel!” So, what lessons from the tragic history of Germany in the 1930s and 1940s did we miss in world history class?
Ultimately, the guilty will always suffer for their evil acts. No matter how many and how fast Adolph Hitler penned executive orders, eventually he was defeated. However, in the meantime (and later into the future), the innocent will suffer horribly due to the actions of the guilty. Moreover, the innocent will also suffer from their own inactions, as sometimes, not taking a positive stand can lead to short and long-term suffering. It always starts out with “them,” and not me being the target, until it’s my turn to be the target!
Two remarkable people have provided me with insight into our current national pain. Pauline Johnson often said, “The good will suffer with the bad.” A former superintendent-mentor taught me that: “Every principal gets the union (UFT) chapter leader they deserve!”
I did not fully understand the former concept until I got older and experienced more of life. I didn’t completely grasp the latter until I became a superintendent and faced challenges from principals who expected me to clean up the messes caused by their poor people-management decisions. These experiences have made me acutely aware of the heavy responsibility that individual decision-making particularly for school leaders—and actions that pretend to be (and are never) neutral carry in shaping critical outcomes. We are what we decide to be as a person or nation, not what we pretend to be.
