Why We Remember And Why We Teach Poem by Jim Yerman

Today is a day we must always commemorate…a day we remember the Holocaust…a tragic time in world history when 6 million Jewish lives were lost.

We think of the horrors they endured…if we listen we can still hear their screams…and we think of the millions of other lives lost to the brutality of the Nazi regime.

Why is it we must remember a time so horrible…a time filled with sorrow and regret? Why is it we teach about a time in the world many people would like to forget?

We remember and we teach about the Holocaust…remembering the who, what, how where and when…with the hope that by teaching the horrors…they will never happen again!

It seems fitting that this anniversary should fall today…at this exact time …on this exact date…when some people are trying to ignore the atrocities that occurred in our own country's history and teach only what they think makes us look great.

Willing to ignore instead of learn from our country's treatment of the Native Americans, Blacks, Japanese, LGTBQ+…anyone who thinks and acts differently…
willing to ignore what actually happened….in an attempt to rewrite our history

When I think of today and what some people are attempting to do…I am shocked…I'm ashamed…I'm appalled and my mind bounces between the words of James Baldwin and Simon Wiesenthal…

Simon Wiesenthal…a Holocaust survivor wrote:
For evil to flourish it only requires that good people do nothing….
and as I watch some of our past atrocities being forgotten or erased
I remember James Baldwin who said:
Not everything that is faced can be changed
but nothing can be changed until it is faced..

America has never been a great country…if you really look back at our history….
But by exploring and discussing our good deeds…and bad…
I imagine, one day, we could be.

Until then there will be citizens of this country…who will never fulfill their dreams….
who will continue to be mistreated and abused…
who will continue to suffer…and scream.