Celebrate Diversity

The line snaked around the building to get into the Holocaust Museum. The journey of those that perished due to anti-Semitic beliefs lasted more than a few decades.
I can’t get past the evil that resulted in the death of millions of Jews across most of Europe in the 1930’s and 1940’s.

Today I spent close to two hours reading the history and stories of brave men, women and children who perished in one of the greatest human tragedies of the 20th century. The tears come quietly, as does the sobering realization that we complain about the most mundane things. I feel ashamed.

The tragedy is that this evil was wrought by men who believed in the creation of a superior race. What an archaic notion, even more so in today’s time. We must celebrate diversity in the workplace and in our communities. The celebration of diversity is not the domain of a few people of color to get together and protest persecution — we must teach it to our children and celebrate it in our school, our places of worship and certainly within our organizations. We must teach acceptance, tolerance and inclusiveness.

At the end of the day, I still agree with a little 12 year old girl named Ann Frank. Even though she died just before the liberation of her people, she believed deeply in the goodness of the human spirit.