• Focus on the things that bring people together.
• Invite your neighbors over for dinner or take them cookies or home-made bread some random afternoon, or help them with a home improvement project.
• Shake hands with the person who looks differently and believes differently than you do.
• Agree that disagreement is okay and healthy.  Find ways to get along and work to create real solutions even though you don’t agree or think the same way.

Visiting a former Nazi concentration camp isn’t something anyone wants to do.

Nor is visiting the Killing Fields or the school turned into a death prison in Cambodia.

But a visit to Auschwitz or a concentration camp is something everyone should do at least once.

They display in a way that nothing else can how at points in history, what it means to be human, and what it means to be civilized, are allowed to be redefined by the minority.

During the years the Nazi death camps were in operation, humanity and civilization were allowed to be pushed over the edge, in the name of national pride and building a country.

Those leading the nationalism were filled with hate and rage.

Those leading the nationalism were brought to power using the weakness of a general population that was easily swayed due to ignorance, distraction, and the difficulty of the times they were experiencing.

(IF WE DO NOT LEARN FROM THE LESSONS OF THE PAST, WE ARE DESTINED TO LIVE THEM AGAIN…)

When we visited Dachau 3 years ago, I saw someone had written thoughts in a book left in one of the old barracks buildings for the purpose of writing down comments.

Someone had done the same, writing the same comment, during their visit to Auschwitz.

The person’s comment was in Polish, but I understood: “Never again.”

My prayer is that we as humans – beings of a highly similar physical makeup, communication methods, and aspirations – have the wisdom, foresight, and courage to see that never again wish be honored in our lifetimes and beyond.