I vividly remember reading The Diary of A Young Girl by Anne Frank when I was about the same age that she was at the time when she recorder her story. I flipped rapidly through the pages of the book identifying with her thoughts. I experience horror thinking about her situation, wondering how I would feel and act if I were ever in the same kind of danger. I cried uncontrollably when I read that she and her family were discovered and sent to a concentration camp. I cried even more when I learned that she did not make it out alive. Her story haunted me and left me wondering what could have possibly led to the evil of those concentration camps where so many innocents died.
I researched the history of Germany to determine how people had been able to look the other way when citizens among them were being rounded up and taken away. I could not imagine what kind of situation would foment such cold blooded disrespect for humanity. I wondered what would have happened to me or members of my family if we had lived in Germany during that time. My grandmother and mother both suffered from mental illness. Would they have been considered unworthy of life? Would my gay and lesbian friends have been rounded up along with the Jews. Would my boldness in speaking out for those being abused have earned me a berth in one of the camps? Would I have been strong enough to criticize what was happening, or would I have looked the other way, pretending not to notice?
I suppose that I never really stopped thinking about that era in Germany. It confounded me that humans were able to be so vile. Then again I realized that history repeats the kinds of horrors that occurred there with regularity. Here in the United States we enslaved people on plantations, sent Native Americans to reservations, segregated the freed slaves, abused Irish, Italian, Eastern European, and Hispanic immigrants, hated Jews, Muslims and all kinds of people for their religious beliefs, treated the LGBTQ community as though they were somehow perverse. Sometimes people from those groups actually died for no other reason than being viewed as different and therefore unworthy of living among us.
It pains my heart to see and hear people categorize entire populations as less than, even criminal. It creates divisions and sometimes wars. Inevitably there are new Anne Franks who are hurt in spite of their innocence. I want to believe that I will always be a voice for them. I want to be the kind of person who will not quietly accept such situations or ever encourage such cruelty.
My father-in-law warns me that my anxieties about the world as it is today will result in my death before his even though he is twenty years older than I am. He urges me to chill and just let things go because ultimately they always work out in the end. He reminds me that Hitler was defeated, the Civil Rights Bill gave all people more freedoms. While this is true I cannot abide by even one person having to endure unfounded hate on the way to what is right. To look the other way and just wait for things to eventually change for the good is not something I am able to do. I have to speak up even if it means losing friends, getting myself in good trouble. If we are all silent then we are complicit in evil and I don’t ever want to be accused of that.
Right now I feel that a swell of hate is washing over the world and it has taken hold aggressively even in the United States of America. So many groups and individuals are being demonized by individuals running for office. Prejudices are being propagandized just as they were in Germany so long ago. I don’t know that the results will be as dire as they were for Anne Frank but there will be great and unnecessary suffering if each of us do not stand up for the worthiness of all people. Silence will result in hurt.
Many are living in social media echo chambers these days. If they only watch Fox News 24/7 or only talk with like minded people they may not even realize how horrific the situation is. I have seen it firsthand. I have heard the digs. I have even been appalled in hearing that God has sent some of the people to rid us of certain members of our society. This sends a cold chill down my spine.
I want more than anything to believe that good people are being misled. I do not want to believe that they would be okay rounding up individuals and putting them in camps. I want to think that they truly understand the value of each person and their rights to live and believe differently. I long to know that they do not wish any harm to anyone, but somehow they have been led to believe that these “others” are dangerous.
I say to everyone that we have to choose our leaders wisely in this moment. If we fail to grasp the seriousness of our coming election our descendants may one day be wondering how we could have been fooled into following the evil path of condemning people with labels and lies. We must look to a better future, not a darker one. We must vote for joy and love and freedom. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are at the top of the ballot of hope. Voting for them will demonstrate that Americans will never allow hate to rule.
All It Takes Is A Little Love 