Even now, the Germans are ashamed of what happened in their country in the 1930s. Ordinary people allowed a terrible atrocity to happen. Some even participated in it. Very few tried to stop it Why? This the question the descendants of both the victims and the perpetrators continue to ask.
Theirs is not the only nation to be involved in such a terrible tragedy. Armenia, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia all have seen the deaths of thousands of people based on religion or ethnicity. Thousands of Native Americans were slaughtered. Many African Americans were killed or wounded throughout the history of the United States.
We stand at the brink of two different futures. In one, we stand up for each other. We are one humanity and pit ourselves collectively against the struggles facing a planet with seven billion people on it. We have seven billion allies, seven billion potential friends. We see but do not discriminate based on cultural, linguistic, religious, or ethnic differences. We choose to do more than tolerate each other, but respect each other, support each other. We work for peace and justice together.
The second future is one of war, unending. With future generations divided by what we have done. We can teach hatred. We can teach bigotry. We can let greed and fear rule us. we can watch tragic history repeat itself and then deny responsibility. It was not us, we will say. We were not alive then. That was the past. All that matters is now. This future repeats itself, ad infinitum, without real progress. Without real hope. Unless we stand up and say NO MORE.
I know which future I choose. Fear and greed are the enemies. An enlightened people doesn't mass murder other humans. I choose peace. I choose justice.
So when someone asks a presidential candidate, "What are we going to do about the MUslims?" and that candidate says, "We'll be looking into it," --no one in the crowd seems to bat an eyelid at this -- I'm worried. The tragic future looms up. All that stands between us and that future is our humanity.
Theirs is not the only nation to be involved in such a terrible tragedy. Armenia, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia all have seen the deaths of thousands of people based on religion or ethnicity. Thousands of Native Americans were slaughtered. Many African Americans were killed or wounded throughout the history of the United States.
We stand at the brink of two different futures. In one, we stand up for each other. We are one humanity and pit ourselves collectively against the struggles facing a planet with seven billion people on it. We have seven billion allies, seven billion potential friends. We see but do not discriminate based on cultural, linguistic, religious, or ethnic differences. We choose to do more than tolerate each other, but respect each other, support each other. We work for peace and justice together.
The second future is one of war, unending. With future generations divided by what we have done. We can teach hatred. We can teach bigotry. We can let greed and fear rule us. we can watch tragic history repeat itself and then deny responsibility. It was not us, we will say. We were not alive then. That was the past. All that matters is now. This future repeats itself, ad infinitum, without real progress. Without real hope. Unless we stand up and say NO MORE.
I know which future I choose. Fear and greed are the enemies. An enlightened people doesn't mass murder other humans. I choose peace. I choose justice.
So when someone asks a presidential candidate, "What are we going to do about the MUslims?" and that candidate says, "We'll be looking into it," --no one in the crowd seems to bat an eyelid at this -- I'm worried. The tragic future looms up. All that stands between us and that future is our humanity.
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