Ugly

Hook-nosed.

Shifty-eyed.

Disfigured.

Retarded.

Sclerotic.

Fat.

Discolored.

Low-brow.

Ugly.

How often has our revulsion of physical attributes - some of which are purely subjective - prevented us from stepping up against evil that was perpetrated upon another human being?

How many people were reluctant to rise to the aid of Jews, Gypsies and others who were being exterminated in the Holocaust because on some level they found these people as unappealing as the Nazis themselves did?

To what extent did the story of Ethan Saylor get written as it did because all involved - the theater personnel, the cops, the by-standers, and the grand jurors - did not see an overweight, intellectually disabled man as fully human?