Posted by Isaac Borenstein
I write from a perspective of privilege and safety. I am a white male (few people can tell I was born in Havana), having reached a powerful position in our society – Judge – and never victimized by violence. Actually, once, when I was eight years old I was threatened and harassed by a neighborhood bully and the experience remains embedded in my psyche. The terror I felt at the time made me physically ill. Apart from that “brush” with nastiness, I have been able to “hide” in the shadows of protected status. It’s been easy for me to assume a “higher than thou” position of intellectual superiority when it comes to fear, threats, and risk of injury. I was able to legally avoid the draft during the Vietnam War. Terror, fright, hysteria, lack of sleep from their threat – I have never had to personally concern myself about those. These are things that happen to or are experienced by others.
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