The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/tag/2024-election)
TWH’s Editor-in-Chief, Manny Moreno, responds to the claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are abducting and eating the pets of other residents. The baseless claim has deep roots in racism, xenophobia, and religious intolerance, and has been levied against practitioners of Vodou and modern Paganism.
To sacrifice takes courage. In our ethics, to put others or our values above the desires of the individual means to appeal to the better parts of our nature. How often do we teach our children or say to each other that we should “do the right thing”? How often do we applaud words or deeds that demonstrate this higher form of sacrifice precisely because it is so difficult for many people and it is not what most might do if we were in that same position.
We stand, as we have for so long now, at a crossroads. What kind of society do we want to be? What will be our legacy for the future of this country and for the world? Will we be a society that practices empathy, striving to care for our citizens and embracing our differences? Or will we regress into a Christofascist ethno-state, where we demonize our neighbors and strip them of their human dignity?
How many speak, work, argue, and have the courage to live fully here because of the promises given in the Constitution? The answer is many. However, we forget that for all of that freedom there is a grim reality: what has been taken for granted can be so easily taken away. The erosion of our freedoms has begun.