Precedented Times
"Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of night and day, poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes ... Families are torn apart: men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find their parents have disappeared."
I wish I could say that we lived in unprecedented times. I wish I could say that we had learned from history instead of allowing it to repeat in all the worst ways. I wish I could say that the great evils of our past are forever buried in their graves along with the men who committed them. But if I said that, it would be ignoring an unfortunate truth— that the above quote, while all too reminiscent of current events, is not a recent statement about what is happening in America today. It was taken from The Diary of Anne Frank.
When I first learned about the Holocaust back in middle school, one of the things that struck me most was the complacency of the average person in 1930’s Germany. Like many kids, I had grown up with media about everyday people standing up against the forces of evil. I believed in the Luke Skywalkers and Frodo Bagginses of the world. Hearing that so many people did nothing to stop the atrocities happening right before their eyes ignited a flame of anger within my childhood self. I was certain that if something like that happened in our society today, I would stand up and fight. I was certain that I would be joined by my friends and family, that we would form a united front and prevent evil from rising again. I was certain that we knew better than those who failed to stand up in the past.
But now, people are disappearing once again. Innocent people are being snatched up off the street and stolen away to undisclosed locations or deported to prison camps infamous for their human rights violations. It’s happening again, just as Anne Frank described in her diary all those years ago. I have had the misfortune of watching family members I once looked up to become the type of person who would have cheered at the capture of Anne Frank. Perhaps some of them would have even turned her in. And alongside them, just like last time, are all the people who are guilty in their complacency.
Standing up to fight is a lot harder than I believed it to be as a child. Excuses tumble forth like ammunition: “I’m too scared,” or “I have my own problems to deal with,” or “I don’t know where to start.” They all converge to bully that one little voice into submission, the voice that says “I have to do something.” What we need to understand is that these excuses mean nothing in the face of what we stand to lose by choosing not to act. It is not merely our freedom on the line, but the optimistic vision of our identity that our childhood selves once believed we could be. Years from now, a new generation of children will be reading about us in their history books. What will they see? Will they read about the heroics of a united people who finally said “enough is enough” and ended one of the great injustices of their time? Or will they see a failed society who allowed their weakest members to be trodden upon by tyrants?
I, for one, refuse to be counted among the complacent. These are precedented times, which means we have a clear example of where our current path will lead us if we don’t act soon. Anne Frank only wrote in her diary for two years before she was captured. She would never write again. With that harrowing thought in mind, resistance becomes a moral obligation to anyone with a conscience. Every act of resistance matters— from boycotts to protests to joining up with local activist groups. Each small step builds the momentum of change until the wall of fascism crumbles under our collective weight. Together, we can make the difference that our predecessors did not. We owe it to our country, we owe it to our future, and we owe it to the children we used to be.
