The Nazis lost the war in 1945. I would like to believe that the world has changed since then.
Look around--nothing important has changed. Innocent people suffer today at the hands of those who refuse to accept their own weaknesses and their unarguable equality to everyone on the planet. They will stop at nothing to gain ultimate power, to prove (in large part to themselves, for they are the ones who really care) their unique superiority.
I remember, about 15 years ago, I flipped the television channel from a documentary on concentration camps of WWII to a channel carrying a special on the Rwanda Genocide (which occured just shy of 50 years after WWII ended). The trains and trucks carrying the dead or nearly dead into camps. Slaughtering hundreds of people by firing squad, execution style without blind-folds or last meals. The fallen bodies kicked into a ditch and covered with dirt. I flipped back to the Nazis and back again to Rwanda, back and forth. The footage so similar I could not tell the difference except for the color of the skin.
In the 21st century the world watched as footage from Darfur proclaimed genocide is alive and well. Sometimes governments argue over whether certain uprisings or internal wars can be characterized as genocide. Still, no one intervenes.
The language we use with one another, the messages of AM radio talking heads, and even religious leaders blow hatred not so gently on the sparks of genocide on every continent, in every country, and near your own home. Acceptance and tolerance are not enough. Every human being is equal. Each of us is imperfect. All of us deserve the full respect of those with whom we share this planet.
(photos care of my husband who just returned from Europe where he visited the camps)
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