I attended the opening dedication of the new Holocaust Museum in Skokie today for MakeItBetter.net. The ceremony was full of hopeful and gracious speeches by former President Bill Clinton, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, Rabbi Herman Schaalman and others.

All of the presenters talked about using education to prevent further genocides and atrocities from happening again. Here are a few quotes from the day:

“Life is not made up of years, but of moments. Let every moment guide your conduct.” – Elie Wiesel

“Deeply in every person, the forces of light and darkness do battle. When the darker forces prevail, the capacity for evil rises. That must always be remembered and opposed” – former President Bill Clinton

“In a way, to remember is to survive, and we have to survive to remember” – Israeli President Shimon Peres in a special dedication video

As I was leaving the dedication, I saw a group neo-Nazi protesters standing on the corner waving Nazi flags as the dedication attendees drove past. I took a few photos as I waited for the light to change (see below) because I couldn’t believe what was happening. I saw one of the male protesters signal the Hitler salute to a car that pulled up next to him. And it was disturbing to see the American flag portrayed right next to the Nazi flag as if it’s a patriotic duty to hate.

After a few seconds of processing what I had just seen, especially after the moving ceremony, I just started to cry on my way home. Today’s protesters are only small representation of a much larger problem. We would like to think that our world has come a long way since Nazi Germany, but there is still so much hate in this world. And it is infecting humanity.

We see hate happen every day when we treat illegal immigrants with disrespect and contempt, or when we secretly mock an interracial couple. The list could go on. Although I am not guilty of the examples above, I have shown hate unknowingly in my own way when I’ve talked badly about someone behind their back or watched as someone I knew acted in a hateful manner and didn’t say anything.

Today’s events reminded me that humanity is capable of anything and it’s up to each one of us to prevent the spread of hate and anger, because life is so much more pleasant when it’s filled with love and peace.