I have very mixed feelings. And not because I am caustic, but rather because I am an idealist. This past year or so has been pretty traumatic for me: came out, transitioned and lost most of my family and home. Perhaps what hit me the most emotionally though was reflecting during the Week of Remembrance and reading random identification cards. While many understand that the Holocaust took the lives of close to six million people, mostly Jews, that number also included other ethnic groups, the mentally infirmed and homosexuals; all murdered in the name of hate and fear, no other reason. The Week of Remembrance calls light to this, that we always remember this and end the hate. All hate, not just one specific type of hate. Violence and murder against any group for any reason is disgusting and nothing more than hate. But when every individual group who is effected by the violence calls for their day in the sun to speak out against the violence perpetrated upon "their" people, it dilutes the hate. To have separate days to recognize each and every individual group dilutes the significance of the true meaning and only serves to call attention to individual groups rather than the root problem, which is violence and hate. Rather so, I call on all splinter groups to unite under one common cause, for the good of all, not just their own group; come together and stand as one voice. As they were persecuted as one and should stand as one. Hate is hate. Violence is Violence. We all want both to stop. We all need to come together.
