I believe it is useful for new Public Health practitioners to adopt a simple mentality when managing populations and that is the notion of an absolute list for good, never for evil.
The concept comes from Schindler’s List. The book and movie had a significant impact on me as a kid. I even went to Auschwitz and the Krakow ghetto and work camp sites.
I think it’s important that anyone entrusted with another person’s state of health and wellbeing never lose sight of their moral compass. We think that we’re better than the Nazis today, but the times are disposing of that delusion. We are not better than them, we have the same instincts and we are capable of the same crimes.
If someone, especially a politician, tells you a group of people are a threat to your ability to work ask them why. Listen for the holes in their answer. We all must defend the weak parts of our psyche against violent extremism. We all must hold life as sacred.
We must not join private armies. We must not cash in others for our own safety. If someone tells you not to get stuck on names, ignore them, better yet do the opposite.
There is no idea on Earth worthy of another Holocaust, not even American exceptionalism.