Guest Column: A reminder of indifference, weakness

As Glendale and other cities throughout the world schedule the commemoration of the Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Turks nearly 100 years ago, we are often asked why? Why the inhumanity?

We are getting closer to the answer. Unlike the sporadic newspaper stories that surfaced of that genocide during World War I, we can now witness nightly the level of atrocity men are willing to perpetrate on their fellow men. We can now dig faster and deeper into the psychic of these perpetrators.

Today, we see how a despotic ruler can systematically kill his political opposition in Syria, and while thousands of civilians are murdered, Bashar Assad's wife is concerned about downloading purchases from iTunes. There is a disconnection of empathy. It is as if the capacity for ethical consideration requires that our limbic systems be properly in tune. Without empathy, we can't seem to conjure morality. Emotions trump reason.

We now know, through the efforts of neuroscientists, that our brain structures vary in their capacity of empathy. But we nonetheless pride ourselves on our ability to reason. Without rational thought, science and engineering would not have contributed so much to the great improvement in our quality of life. Without rationality, democracy, collaboration and trade would be impossible. Yet, despite these great strides, we so easily succumb to our basest emotions.

Fear, hatred and greed are stoked by politicians and despots alike. With these mind tools, the military continues to rule in many countries while giving themselves a false justification in killing those in opposition to their rule. In other countries, politicians of ill will continue their rule while trashing their country's finances and leaving millions in dire poverty and misery.

To Armenians, Enver Pasha and his ruling Ottoman coalition nearly annihilated a nation. To the Kurds, Saddam Hussein stands firmly in infamy. To Ukrainians, Joseph Stalin stands as the murderer of millions by premeditated starvation. The list of inhumanity is too long. To Cambodians, it was Pol Pot. To Koreans, Kim Jong Il. In Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic established internationally the horrific meaning of ethnic cleansing. In America, the long history of slavery and racism is the stain we will always carry.