People, People, People! You don’t want to hear it, but I’m going to tell you because it needs to be said, AGAIN! This world is in a sorry state.

Recently, I decided to be a good informed citizen and catch up on some news. OK, I can grasp the little (all right, not so little) catastrophes that strike randomly like Hurricane Hugo, what can you do when Mother Nature gets p—– off?

At least Hugo stopped when all the houses fell down. Residents of former homes—now shrubble—were still struck by looters, pillaging through family memories.

Meanwhile, the little blond-haired girl, in frayed pigtails and dirty pink ribbons, cries because the tattered cloth arm with cotton breaking out of the seams is the only remnant of her favorite doll, Lulu, that she can find.

Maybe the little girl trick was a tad unfair. How could I use the innocence of a child to tear at the hearts of the readers? I happen to be fighting a disease that has all but taken over many people’s lives and I need to use every nasty trick I can. The disease is called rationalization. The cure is emotion.

You’re skeptical? If the little girl image hadn’t been part of the above scenario, how many people would have excused the looters?

A common excuse might have been, “Well, the looters didn’t tear down the houses, they were just making the best of a bad situation.”

How about, “Those people deserve whatever they get for living so close to the coast! They should know that after every hurricane, looters come by and rob what’s left of house and home!”

Or even worse, “Those poor looters (sniff), have been so deprived all their lives (sniff), they don’t know how else to live (sniff, sniff).”

For those wishing to puke on that last excuse please feel free to do so, now.

So you see what I have to work with? Fortunately, or rather unfortunately, there are some instances where rationalization hasn’t a chance.

Let’s look at South Africa, shall we? Apartheid, an ugly word in itself, is the solution for AIDS! Case in point: A group of neo-Nazis demonstrating in Pretoria, South Africa, held banners with slogans saying “Apartheid: Solution for AIDS.”

All right, I’ve got my catcher’s mit on, throw those rationalizations this way… Come on!… What?! No excuses? How about the first amendment? Isn’t anyone going to even use the freedom of speech ploy? Oh, there you are. Yes, you, the one with newspaper print all over your fingers.

That’ll work, it is their right after all, at least from an American point of view. But what about a women’s group, Women Against Repression, denied the right to demonstrate peacefully against Apartheid because they didn’t ask the government first? Meanwhile, the neo-Nazis were beating on black South Africans during their “demonstration.”

How about that? Well, South Africa isn’t America is it? We can’t get involved where we have no jurisdiction. It’ll all work out in the end for them anyway. No! No! NO! Don’t rationalize your way out of this one! People are being murdered for their rights down their!

OK (deep breath), I’m calm. Just remember, it’s rationalization vs. emotion; you decide who will win.