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HATE IS THE SCARIEST THING
by Julie Thomas
Just today, my class took a field trip to Chicago to hear from a Holocaust survivor and to see a boxcar that the Holocaust victims rode in before they were taken to concentration camps. When a survivor spoke to us, she told us to imagine everything she was saying.
She told us to imagine ourselves in that boxcar surrounded by people. You had to stand up, and you couldn even move; that how crowded you were. You rode in this car for days, anywhere from one day to three, and no one had showered; everyone was in dirty clothes. The only place to use the bathroom was in a bucket in the middle of the car. People were dead and dying around you. A mother was holding a dead baby in her arms.
Can you imagine it? I tried to. She told us her grandfather died in this boxcar. She told us to imagine the smell and the feelings, the emotions we go through; the fear. I had never imagined something so scary in my life. When I actually saw this boxcar, I was afraid. People like she described were actually in there. Babies were actually thrown out those windows. I was frightened. I touched the boxcar and felt like I had touched a thousand hands of a thousand victims. Then...she told us why this happened. She told us that this happened because of hate.
Hate. Hate: a simple word. Most people say it everyday; "I hate that," or "I hate when that happens." We say hate just like that... but what these people went through; that was real hatred. She told us not to hate. I knew she was right, I always believed that. But she really impressed it into me.
I realized really how bad and horrible hate could be. I realized we need to educate everyone about this. The teens and kids today are the future of our country, are the future of the world. If they are never taught not to hate, the Holocaust could happen all over again. After seeing what I saw today, I knew I couldn let that happen.
People can actually take hate that far. Just because someone skin is a different color, or their beliefs are different, people will hate them. People will hurt them or kill them. This thought scares me. Hate is the scariest thing I can imagine. I hoping that this future will be bright. | 
