Kevin George
Aug 22, 2017 · 3 min read

I remember when Lovell and I visited Auschwitz. It was a gripping, heart wrenching day as we toured the gas chambers and “barracks”. What a vile and despicable time in our world when men, women, and children suffered and died for a race who considered themselves superior. The action of the Nazis proved they were in no way superior, but the perpetrators of one of the horrific crimes on humanity. We can see these same sick acts carried out in Rwanda, Sudan, and other countries around the world.

Slavery, and the violence perpetrated against the men, women, and children brought across seas and oceans by traders of human beings is reprehensible.

We cannot forget the crimes committed against men, women, boys, and girls in the name of superiority, or we are destined to repeat them. We’ve seen this time and time again. And we see this even today as humanity is enslaved in brothels, diamond mines, and factories.

We are allowing the past to be repeated not because we have forgotten but because of our apathy. I hope you are offended with me at the fact that we don’t care enough to fight. Fighting with our money. Fighting with our time. Fighting with our lives.

Where are our modern heroes who will fight like the Germans and others who rescued thousands of Jews from violent deaths who today will rescue children working in diamond mines? Where are the modern day heroes who will fight like the underground railway to rescue boys and girls from sex slavery?

We would rather buy diamonds paid for with the blood of children in Africa. We would rather buy cell phones paid for with the blood of children mining for the minerals used to build those phones.

We have not forgotten the past. We have grown apathetic, careless, and lost compassion for the men, women, boys, and girls. We are willing to allow it for the sake of convenience. Our convenience. Their blood.

We are the ones who looked away while Jews were killed and men, women, and children were sold in the open square. We are those who turned a blind eye while humanity suffered.

We must remember the past and choose to fight for justice. Fighting for those who deserve to be treated like valuable gifts to our world, not as those who are less that us.

If you travel to Auschwitz, you’ll find the concentration camps filled with the stories of Jews, Germans, and other rescuers. You find the shower rooms. Shower heads that dispensed deadly gas, not refreshing water. You’ll see the smoke stacks where the dead were burned. You’ll see the lampshades, wallets, and goods made from the skin of our brothers and sisters. Jews.

You must choose to remember the past by erecting monuments to the victims, not to heroes who fought FOR evil. Travel with me to Auschwitz and you’ll find monuments to pain and suffering, not to the perpetrators who inspired and fought for the evil. You’ll find monuments of torture, but I dare you to find a single statue to the men and women who in superiority exterminated millions of people.

I did not cause slavery. I refuse to accept personal responsibility for that vile past, but I refuse to protect the statues erected to the men and women who perpetrated, sustained, and fought for this evil. If you want the truth, visit a plantation filled with the disgusting memories of rape, beatings, and death, not the statues of the so-called superior men and women who fought for this scourge upon our nation.

Bring down the statues built for the heroes of slavery and replace them with statues to real heroes — the men and women of all color who fought for freedom. For the abolitionists.

Let’s not forget past evils, but let’s choose to fight as modern day freedom fighters. You see, we’re not any better than those who turned their eyes when millions of Jews and slaves were brutalized and died. We can see the past and still allow it to be repeated.

It’s time for a change in our nation that will begin in our heart.

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