It Doesn't Have to Be This Way

Right now, this very minute perhaps, someone, somewhere, in a country you might not have even heard about is being either oppressed, arrested, or even killed just because of the colour of their skin, their sexuality, or even what they think.

You think about this, and it’s hard to comprehend, because right now, for you, you don’t have that worry that you and your family might get killed for what you think or what you look like. And you take that for granted, because you have that freedom.

But about 80 years ago, this would not be the case. Imagine, Europe is war-torn, in ruins, little hope remains. The Nazis have made their appearance known and threaten the take over all of Europe. Poland has fallen, Austria has fallen, France has fallen, and even Russia seems to be facing the same fate. Britain, a tiny country across the channel fight for their very existence to stop themselves falling under Nazi rule.

Now imagine, you are living through this, you and your family are living underground trying to keep out of sight because you fear that you’ll be found by the SS and taken. Where? You don’t know. For what? You don’t know. You just know that people just like you are being taken and once they've been taken, you never see them again. But you do know one thing, the only thing as why all this is happening. You are Jewish, and according them, you don’t belong.

Now we all know about the Holocaust and the horrors that took place during World War II, but what people forget is that this shows what intolerance leads to, what being intolerant can do to people. And why it should never happen.

But it does, it still goes on today and people are still as intolerant as during WW1 and WW2. Which is it is something we need to talk about. Tolerance and being accepting of others is the difference between living in peace or living in war. Living in fear or living in hope. And if we as humans carry on thinking the way we are thinking, it will come back to bite us and we will fall.

Think about all those people who fought during the world wars, the people who gave their lives for us, and the people whose lives changed because of it all. How do you think they would think to see that people are still as intolerant of each other as they were 80 years ago? I know, and I think you do too.

But it doesn’t have to be this way, it can change and we can avoid wars and live in peace. How? It starts with you.

Be tolerant of others! So what if someone is gay? So what is someone believes in God? So what if someone disagrees with something you agree with? It doesn’t matter, because at the end of the day, we are all human beings, we are all one race, one global community.

You start being tolerant towards others and you start to release how much better life becomes, how much more interesting it is. Why waste energy on oppressing someone when you could spend it on doing something far better. Go to mars, destroy cancer, bring world peace!

Wouldn’t you want that than a war-torn world full of fear?