No. Not Here.

I’ll never forget. The first time I saw the green numbers tattooed into Tio Werner’s arm. He was mending his small farm outside of Santiago, Chile. I must have been 7 or 8 years old. I asked an innocent question, “What’s that?” I got an explanation that was impossible to understand.

I’ll never forget. Peering into the bunks and death showers at Dachau. 188,000 enslaved, tortured, brutally killed. And across the street, the homes of former friends and coworkers — who each night could smell the bodies burning if the wind blew in their direction.

Tio, how could someone mark you like an animal?

How could friends, neighbors, nations sit by idly? Silent.

Out of fear. Disbelief. Hatred. Resentment. Denial.

Collectively, acting by not acting.

It is too easy to try to explain it away. In Germany. Cambodia. Armenia. Rwanda. But at their core is the same thing — the use of race and religion to guide morality and policy. And now we’re seeing it here. Yes, it’s been around for a long time. Japanese internment should serve as a warning of what our country is capable of when driven by fear. Innocent friends & neighbors imprisoned for years, without reason or justice. Yet this time it is different. This time it is the actual platform and policies of a major party.

Is Donald Trump Hitler? No, by no means.

But his strategy in seeking power is the same.

Fear.

Distrust.

Racism.

Xenophobia.

Rather than provide solutions, lay blame.

Rather than construct thoughtful long-term policy, find someone who must lose - now.

It doesn’t need to be genocide to be wrong. The proposals on the table - banning entry and enacting surveillance based solely on religion, incarceration and suspension of human rights, limiting freedom of the press, typecasting entire ethnicities and using race or gender as a means for judging worth or competency - these should shake every American at our core. These are the types of policies that so many American soldiers have fought and died to stop elsewhere.

Look at your kids. Your nieces and nephews. Siblings. Imagine someone hating them for no reason other than who they are. Enough to spit in their face. Enough to kick them when already on the ground. I am describing Republican presidential rallies. As encouraged by the man behind the podium.

And no one is speaking up. No prominent Republican in office has been willing to stand up to Trump - since he got the nomination. Holding back an endorsement is not the same as speaking with conviction about what is right and wrong.

It’s appalling. It means everyone else needs to speak up — louder.

This election is no longer Democrat v Republican v Independent. This is about our values, about our shared humanity, about the country we want our kids to inherit.

You think Donald Trump will improve the economy?

You don’t like Hillary Clinton?

Or only like Bernie Sanders?

It doesn’t matter.

The cost is too great.

I believe we need a strong Republican party. I deeply respect Bernie Sanders and his platform. This is not about party politics. It can no longer be about politics. We have to recognize what we’re facing, and choose our future.

It’s time to remember. Time to speak up.

Time to show that our humanity and ideals come first.