Essay Competition

The Museum of Tolerance:

A Day that Changed Perspectives

“Let us not forget, after all, that there is always a moment when the moral choice is made. Often because of one story or one book or one person, we are able to make a different choice, a choice for humanity, for life.” A quote by Elie Wiesel. In the past few months a lot has happened, to influence my choices as a person. We as a nation have gained a new president, Donald Trump. A person who I personally would never aspire to be anything like nor replicate any of his actions. Another thing that happened, I was diagnosed with Lyme disease, not really a big deal in the scheme of things, but was a pretty big deal for me. Then there was Febuary tenth about two weeks ago when everything was really put into perspective.

Our teacher announced where we were going a few days before the trip. She explained that we would be taking a fieldtrip to the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. She told us it would be a hard day, but I had no idea just how hard it would be. When we entered the museum we were greeted by a white lobby brightly lit, in the middle of which was a winding ramp going both up and down. As we walked down the ramp we discovered a statue. The statue depicted a human being in a pose of agony lying across the star of david. As we proceeded through the museum we were shown the horrors of the Holocaust. What a human was able and is able to do to another human was devastating. I watched my classmates faces as we were told of the horrors that occurred, millions killed fathers, mothers, children, for what simply because they were jewish, or because they didn’t have white skin. As we continued through the museum tears rolled down the cheeks of my classmates. At the end of our museum experience we were told we were witness.

Witness? What? I wasn’t there I remember thinking I had no part in any of these horrible atrocities commited to humans by other humans. This is not what they meant when they told us we were all witnesses as I soon learned. When they told us that we were witness, they meant to what happened, meaning we now knew the story a horrible tragic story but we knew what had been done. So when we were told we were witness that meant that we knew what happened and it did happen. As a witness it is our job to pass on our knowledge and the story however painful it may be. We must also be sure to make sure nothing like this ever happens again because history does repeat itself.

Walking away from the museum that day I saw the world in a whole different light. Even today there are hateful acts being committed everyday and you can’t just sit by and watch. If you want something to change you have to be the person to change it.