International Holocaust Remembrance Day Jan 27

Today marks the 74th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi-run concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau where more than one million people were murdered by Nazis. In 2005 the UN designated this as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The idea was to honor the victims of the Holocaust and to promote education around it while preserving sites where the acts of genocide took place.  But more importantly it should be used to mobilize ‘we the people’ of the world, to create effective and responsible local, national and global systems and structures to detect, prevent, and deter any plans for genocide.  And, to actively investigate and hold accountable any individual, group or nation that has been found guilty of committed such a crime against humanity.

Unfortunately, our current global system of international law established by the UN over 70 years ago unwillingly protects national sovereignty above the protection of human rights.  The UN has repeatedly offered inspiring words, good intentions, and unenforceable treaties.  But these cannot bring the justice need in our world for sustainable freedom and security for all.

Imagine living in a city without a police or fire department.  Yet we think we can sustain our freedom and security in our own neighborhood when there is no global police force or emergency response that is always trained, supplied and ready for immediately deployment in every other community around us.

Since the world said “Never Again” there has been well over 60 genocides taking the lives of tens of millions of people.  In fact, in the last century there were more people liked in genocides (approw.160 million) than all the wars and revolutions combined (approx. 100 million) during the same time period.

And now, for good or evil, the evolution of bio-technology has yielded unprecedented capacity for manipulating DNA and even creating new life forms.  Today, small groups of scientists with relatively limited funding can create viruses capable of targeting specific genetic diseases and even cure individuals with certain genetic defects.  Inevitably, the same technology can also be used to target specific genetic profiles with unprecedented killing capacity. 

Daily news reports remind us that we humans have a similar dual genetic capacity.  We have both a propensity for empathy, kindness and justice; and a genetic capacity for well-organized violence (war) and mass murder (genocide).  Fortunately, we lean more toward the peaceful end of that genetic spectrum, but it doesn’t take much to whip us backward to the other end.   Together we stand, divided we face Armageddon. Which direction we chose to go is entirely determined by our mental concepts and our flexible but too often stubborn beliefs systems.  

Given the evolution of weapons and the potential weaponization of every technology (including social media’s fake news now responsible for mass murders in India), it has never been more important that we remember there are “Self-evident” “Truths” evident in “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God”.  The truth that that all people are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain God given rights to “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”. 

When we forget this and other profound Truths, our minds wonder and create alienating alternative truths like “my religion is better than yours”, “my nation is under God and yours is irrelevant”, or “my economic theory is worth keeping regardless of its impact on you or the environment that I take for granted.”

What does your mind say?  Which truths does it hold?