Being neutral is not an option

For a few years I’ve been leading a group of youth for my church and this year our theme is: “I will go, I will do!” This is inspiring me to share a story that I heard this week on the radio.

This particular story takes place during the time when Berlin was separated into West Berlin and East Berlin by the wall. On the eastern side, a police force now famously known as “the Stasi” was oppressing, surveilling and detaining people, often with cruelty and abuse.

This story is about a woman who was a member of a group that promoted freedom and for this reason she was closely watched by the Stasi. They would enter her house when she was absent, move objects around and when she would tell her friends about her suspicions, they would brush them off as figments of her imagination. The Stasi had bugged her house, they would sometimes slash her tires and do other actions to mess with her mind and undermine her credibility. She was interrogated several times by the Stasi, too, and lived in fear of being imprisoned.

Years after the wall came down, she finally had access to the files that the Stasi had on her. To her sadness, she found out that many of her friends had been acting as informants, reporting all of her whereabouts to the Stasi for more than 10 years.

One of her best friend committed suicide after she found out about his actions during the reign of the Stasi. Some of her friends were coerced to become informants because they were afraid for their family. Some were compelled by money or other advantages and some just acted following an ideal. During that period of history, everyone had to take a side.

Right now, we are in a situation again where being neutral about all the hate and abuse surrounding us is not an option anymore.

Just as history has judged those “ordinary” people who decided to follow Hitler, Stalin, Mao or the Stasi (the list is long and still ongoing), we will be judged.

I am wondering what my descendants will think of me when they open my diary and read about my opinions, the people I gave my support to, the people I refused to follow, the things I embraced and identified with.

My hope is that they will see someone who chose the side of charity, the side of equity, justice and love. I hope they will see someone who may have made mistakes but who wasn’t neutral, scared or timid about her standards.

In the story that I related about East Germany, many people made a bad choice under an oppressive regime that pressured them to take the wrong side.

We do not live under such a regime. If we really have freedom, then let’s use it to firmly stand against hate, divisiveness, lies and incitement to violence. Let’s make the choice to promote love, charity, tolerance, generosity and to offer protection to the most vulnerable among us.

Prayers and good feelings are always important but, as member of the human race, our first duty is to “go and do”!

Cathy LaPlace