To the editor:

The existence of evil, and the reluctance of many people to face, or even acknowledge, it is well-documented throughout world history.

Relatively recent genocide in Europe, Asia and Africa, carried out in the full light of public knowledge, bears terrible witness to it.

In our own country, unspeakable oppressions of Native Americans, blacks and Japanese Americans, among others, testify to the existence of evil and the fact that “for evil to triumph, all that is required is for good (people) to do nothing.”

In the Middle East, evil is ascendant once again. Child suicide bombers, civilians murdered and their bodies burned, screaming kidnappers with knives against the throats of their victims, threatening to burn them alive in the name of God; these are clearly the acts of evil people, acts that cannot be let to stand.

But if history tells us anything, it’s that most of the people of the world will stay mute in the face of evil, or will attack those few who stand against it. I fear we will continue to permit the murder and torture of innocents for a long time to come.

Gary Henry,

Lawrence