Today's MOZEN: NEVER FORGET

F LoBuono

Today, January 27th, has been designated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Its purpose is to bring to light the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis against millions of people, the great majority of them Jews, and honor those lost. However, what ALL of us should take to heart is to NEVER FORGET.

Through those words, brought into focus by the horror of an exclusionary doctrine: fear thy neighbor - hate thy neighbor - kill thy neighbor - simply because they may be different, we must commit to not only NEVER FORGET but insure that it can NEVER AGAIN happen, as well.

Unfortunately, we may have not learned that lesson.

We are currently being told of a CRISIS at our Southern Border. Our President repeatedly claims that hordes of people, so-called Brown People, are assaulting the Country at the border. We have been told they are Bad Dudes who will take our jobs, rape our women, and destitute us in a wave of drugs and social dependency. In reality, the great majority of them are women and children desperately attempting to escape crisis in their own Countries (often exacerbated by US policies within that country). Furthermore, instead of a vicious, ignorant swarm, there is documented evidence that immigrant communities, regardless of the so-called legal status of its members, are almost always safer than those without a strong immigrant presence. In addition, still more studies prove that immigrants - ALL -immigrants - contribute greatly to our society overall.

So, our we making the same mistakes - over and over again - practicing exclusion instead of inclusion? Wasn't the American ethos to accept those whom everyone else rejected? Doesn't it say Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses somewhere?

Or, is that just so much more bull shit?

On this International Holocaust Remembrance Day let us recommit to tolerance, compassion, inclusion, and empathy so that we do, indeed, live the credo NEVER AGAIN!