Hitler was not just a poor, misguided man who didn't get hugged enough as a child.

Evil is not a disease; evil is a choice. No one can force you to do what is wrong, no matter how many sad things lie in your past. It is true that statistically, if someone has been treated badly, they are more likely to treat other people badly. But that does not mean that it is any less their choice. If you go out and murder people, you can't just blame it on bad parenting. Bad parenting may have helped the situation along, may not have taught the child effective ways of coping with temptation, may have given a motive, but it did not force anyone to do the wrong thing.

We want to say, Yes, some evils are obviously a choice, bu others aren't! Unfortunately, we can't say that. Because where do we draw the line? A child is raised by an alcoholic father, and because of his genes and his upbringing, later turns to alcoholism himself. We want to pity him and say, It's not his fault but the fault of his circumstances--whereas people like Hitler, for whom we have no record of wrong done to them as children, are the ones who are really evil. Unfortunately, we can't say this. Tiny little things can build up to hurt us. Maybe too many kids on the playground called Hitler mean names. If we apply that kind of reasoning to small evils, we must necessarily apply them to large as well. And if we do that, we can no longer hold anyone accountable for their wrongdoing, be they fascist dictators, murdering terrorists, or members of the KKK.

Does this sound depressing and angry? Forcing people who have suffered to take responsibility for their action rather than citing extenuating circumstances? Actually, it's a freedom. Look at it this way.

If evil were a disease as so many people treat it, we would all be in danger of catching it, and we would have no say it. Someone would treat us badly, and poof! we would be evil, or we would turn and do wrong to other people. As it is, we have that choice! We can perpetuate the evil until we have a Capulet and Montague feud on our hands, or we can take a stand and say no to wrongdoing. We can be Tybalt, or we can be Martin Luther King Jr. The choice is ours.

And here's something else to consider. If evil is a disease, is something that just happens to people and does not involve a conscious choice, then good is also a disease and does not involve a conscious choice, either. If there is no evil to choose, then there is no good to choose, either. There would be no heroes anymore. I don't think any of us want to say that humankind is incapable of goodness. If we are capable of good, then we are also capable of evil, and vice versa.

So the choice is always before you. Regardless of the wrong people have done to you: Do you choose to be a Montague or a Ghandi?