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Hitler at the UN
 Among the many instruments in the fiction writer's toolbox is one whose principal function is to re-imagine past events and personalities and present them in a reconstituted reality created in the writer's mind.
The recent meeting of the UN General Assembly and the appalling speeches and conduct of many of its participants suggests just such a scenario.
What if the United Nations had been created in the thirties and one of the principal speeches was delivered by the then leader of Germany, Adolph Hitler in say, 1936? What would he have said and how would that have differed from what numerous speakers inflicted on the Assembly in 2009?
He would have pointed to Nazi economic policies with pride, citing that the profit motive was now regulated by the Nazi state in accordance with its needs. Copious use of taxes and subsidies was the policy of the state and he would brag about its progress. What he would not have said was that compliance was mandatory and based on terror. If you didn't comply you were kaput.
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The Race Card, a Joker
You do not have to be an expert in history to know that hatred, blind, bigoted, ignorant, cruel hatred is a pervasive element in the human psyche. Perhaps, given the bloody record from the beginning of time, it is one of the most dominant features of the human condition.
The litany of hatred is infinite. Yes, there are people who hate blacks because they are black. People hate Jews because they are Jews. People hate Moslems because they are Moslems. Buddhists hate Moslems, Moslems hate Buddhists. There are endless sub categories, Shiites hate Sunnis, Hutus hate Tutsis. The point has been made. The sad fact is that this endless menu of hate has had horrendous, appalling, painful and murderous consequences, resulting in the deaths of millions of our fellow creatures.
Even in enlightened America where our Declaration of Independence proudly proclaimed that "all men are created equal" it has taken more than two centuries and a bloody civil war that took 700,000 lives to begin the process of "equalizing", a condition that is still a work in progress. Even the most dispassionate observer can point to this progress with pride, optimism and impatience.
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