The Massacre of the Innocents: Man's inhumanity to men

Today is Niños Inocentes. The greatest crimes are those committed against others who have no power nor means to defend themselves. As told in the Gospel of St Matthew: 2:16: King Herod of Judea, in his anger and insecurity arising from a news that a new baby had just been born that would be King of Israel, ordered the killing of all infants. All baby boys born in Bethlehem two years old and younger were to be killed.

The legalized abortion in the United States and in many other countries are also forms of injustices to the unborn children. This is a very hot political issue that divides the Democrats and the Republicans. It also divides the people between the pro-life who abhor abortion and the pro-choice who allow abortion purportedly to protect the health and the well-being of the mother. Roe vs Wade was a landmark US Supreme Court decision (by a historic vote of 7 justices against 2 dissenters) promulgated on January 22, 1973, wherein the highest court of America decided that the US Constitution conferred upon the people right to have an abortion.

Subsequent to Roe v. Wade, the following states have granted explicit right to abortion: California (where most of the Fil-Ams are residing), Michigan and Vermont. The following states have allowed implicit right to abortion, subject to state judicial review: Kansas, Montana and Colorado. On the other hand, that state constitutions of Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee and West Virginia explicitly declared that abortion is not a right. The following states banned abortion: Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Indiana, Mississippi and Wisconsin. In June 2022, the US High Court, (voting 5 against 4 dissenters) reversed Roe v. Wade in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson. Thus, the Court now says that the Constitution cannot authorize any state to legalize abortion. Good.

But today, let us expand the meaning of the word "innocents" to include not just babies, and to extend the meaning of "innocents" to other voiceless, marginalized, oppressed and exploited people. The ongoing destruction of Ukraine by Russia is also a form of killing the innocents, especially the children, the seniors and the PWDs. The labor camps in Siberia and in North Korea, dramatized in the novel Gulag Archipelago. The crimes against humanity committed by Hitler in the Holocaust. The extra-judicial killings of small-time drug users and pushers, the summary executions allegedly taking place inside national penitentiaries, jails and prisons, the illegal arrest and detentions of political dissenters during Martial Law, and the one million Filipinos killed during the Japanese invasion are all examples of massacres of innocent civilians.

The world history's worst killers of innocent people are Adolf Hitler who caused the deaths of 6 million Jews due to his unrestrained racism, xenophobia, and megalomania. Next was China's Mao Zedong, 1893 to 1976. In the 1950s, he caused the killing of millions of "wealthy peasants" in his so-called “Great Leap Forward.” His excesses cost the lives of 45 million people who died from starvation, torture, hard labor and arbitrary arrest and detention. Russia's Joseph Stalin, 1878 to 1953. He sent millions to prison and labor camps and caused their deaths. Cambodia's Pol Pot, 1925 to 1998, with his notorious Khmer Rouge killed 25% of the country's population.

Belgian dictator Leopold II, 1835 to 1909 was so brutal that he caused the deaths of 10 million people. Kim Il Sung, 1912 to 1994, grandfather of Kim Jong Un, as the first North Korean dictator, caused no less than 3 million Koreans to die. Saddam Hussein, 1937 to 2006, of Iraq caused the death of 85,000 and his domestic barbarism caused the deaths of 150,000. Idi Amin of Uganda, 1925 to 2003, killed 10 million people. Menguisto Haile of Ethiopia caused the deaths of two million. Josef Mengele, underling of Hitler, was the one who was empowered to select who should be killed. He selected millions in the prison camps.

 These are the people who killed more human beings than Herod did. But since the victims of Herod were babies, he still stands out as the most despicable killer of them all.