Whatever happened to "never again"?

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. In the more than six decades since the Nazi death camps were liberated and a vow was made "never again," we've seen the ugly head of genocide rear itself over and over caused both by dictatorial regimes as well as democratic ones. We know all too well about the killing fields in Cambodia, Srebenica, and Rwanda. We're too lax in trying to remember how thousands "disappeared" in South American countries during the 1970s and 80s, how many are now disappearing in Zimbabwe and Burma. And it's not like the West is any better, what with secret prisons and trials and "renditions."

It's like we've become numb to the most basic principles of decency and honour, to treat a human being so they will act like a human being. In the name of national security we're too willing to sacrifice the most self-evident civil rights, or target specific groups for "profiling." It's this kind of ignorance or prejudice that led to the expulsion of the Acadians in the 18th century, the Irish Potato Famine in the 19th -- and the attempted cultural genocide in the 20th when the Ontario government tried to eliminate the French fact in this province with "Regulation 17." Or on a national level with the Chinese head tax, the abuse of aboriginal students, and the internment of the Japanese. We also saw full well the consequences of segregation and its real intent.

And now, we deal with world leaders who deny one of the most obvious facts of history -- flat out deny the Holocaust ever happened. We think this is just limited to places like Iran where it's official policy. Yet studies consistently show 1 in 5 Canadians deny it happened, including many self-described Christians.

What will it take for the agony to end? For us to actually mean it when we say "never again!"? Because the longer I live, the more I am convinced we're doomed to repeat history and elect leaders who want to repeat it.

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