beating the drum

So people are upset Gunther Grass was a member of the SS as a teenager in Germany in 1945. I do not understand why that is so upsetting. Clearly he was influenced by propaganda, as were thousands of others. We all like to think we would have been the one to do the right thing, in Nazi Germany, or in the segregated South. But if that was true, if every good moral person always did the right thing, then the world would be better by now. We would have done away with racism, war, and simple every day harassment.

The truth is that very few people are willing to stick out their necks for someone else. Be it a neighbor, someone in your workplace, or even in your own family.

None of us know who we would have been in Nazi Germany. So let me ask you this: who are you now?