Now is the time to advocate for inclusivity, compassion, justice

Bigotry, prejudice and discrimination are not new attitudes. These offensive values that we have witnessed before are now engulfing the nation.

I personally experienced them when, as a 9-year-old, I arrived in the U.S. only 30 days prior to Sept. 1, 1939, the start of World War II. I was able to flee from the racist policies dominating a creative and intelligent Germany under Adolf Hitler. I remain grateful a then-reluctant U.S. State Department accepted us.

Seventy-seven years later, I once again am witnessing the rise of hatred, intolerance and acts of violence. Germany’s laws promoted the persecution of numerous minorities, with cooperation of the social structure and state-controlled education system.

Hopefully, our public reaction will differ from the German one in 1933. We face the challenge to increase our vigilance over, and empathy with, all decisions affecting our fellow human beings and our environment! When our values coincide with those of our leaders, we tend to relax and pay less attention to legislation. Now, we face a government with which many of us cannot identify, and we can ill afford this distancing.

Already, I sense an emerging attempt to normalize the absurd values that have been given voice. Our immediate challenge is to find peaceful yet forceful ways to vigorously continue to advocate for our values of tolerance, inclusivity, compassion and justice.

This story was originally published December 17, 2016 at 7:44 PM with the headline "Now is the time to advocate for inclusivity, compassion, justice."