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This past Sunday evening, I drove into the city, past downtown
and on to the museum district. An annual ritual known worldwide
in the T community as the Day of Remembrance was being held at
the Holocaust museum. There was a wine and cheese reception, and
I saw a few people I knew, but most were strangers. As others
were arriving, I toured the exhibit areas for the first time.
There were a few artifacts, but mostly there were photos and
text documenting the mass extermination of Jews and other
undesirables by the Nazis before and during WWII.
It is that "other" part that connects our little community to
the Nazi atrocities. You see, before the Jews were hauled away
by the millions, they rounded up the "unusual" people. The Nazis
were fervent believers in their vision of ethnic purity and
moral values. Anyone who did not fit their physical and social
standards was considered less than human and was either forced
into slavery or killed.
After an hour or so, we all gathered in an auditorium, all 89 of
us (someone counted) to view a video and hear some testimonials
about friends and acquaintances who had been killed for being
"unusual." Not 60 years ago in Auschwitz or Treblinka,
but this year in our fair city, and in other cities around the
world.
It is a sobering thought that any of us could be walking
down the street, minding our own business, and unknowingly so
offend someone by our mere existence that they decide to kill us
then and there. But this is reality, surreal though it sounds.
There is a beast that lives inside every one of us. In order to
live in civilized communities, we must subdue this ancient part
of ourselves. It is this essential task that has always been a
central focus of every serious religious sect. Yet it is the
darkest irony that too often it is those who claim the highest
religious purpose and the sanction of prophets who commit the
most heinous acts against their fellow humans. Rather than
subdue the beast within, they have chosen to surrender to it.
In memory of those who have fallen, the rest of us will hold our
heads high, awaiting the day when it is no longer fashionable to
belittle or assault another human, just because they're
different.
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