Back in 2016, I was in 8th grade. We had a unit on the Holocaust in conjunction with reading Elie Wiesel’s “Night”, a haunting firsthand account of a then boy in Auschwitz. I grew up in Cherry Hill, so I had the privilege of visiting the Jewish Community Center that year and hearing from people who were in concentration camps.

One of the most striking things I remember is that a student asked what it was like before they went to the camps, and Hitler’s rise to power. The first man to answer said, “The first thing Hitler promised to do was make Germany great again.”

I remember bringing this up to a family member, who told me, “When he starts lining people up in concentration camps, then I’ll worry.”

At the time I accepted that answer. I was naive to believe that it would be a hard line. Our administration is lining people up in concentration camps, and still there is not any worry. Not from enough people, at least.

As understandable as it is, we the people have failed to prevent what has happened so far. Any inaction we have fallen into has made way for the rise of fascism in our country. But it is not too late.

Our feelings are not enough. Our words are not enough. The day when they are, fascism will die. Today is not that day. Today is the day to organize and to fight. To vote while we still have the ability to. To reach out and rally people to the fight. To put pressure on our politicians and the businesses that have them by the scruff. Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Greens, Independents, wherever you find yourself, you have a responsibility to yourself, your families, your communities, and your country not to live as someone who allowed this to happen, and not to die knowing that you died under a fascist regime.

It’s time to get to work. Let’s roll.

Godspeed,
MJ Mac (he/him, 22)