We all have to carry our own burdens. Even though most of us have no kids to support, no mortgages on houses and no jobs on the verge of being outsourced to the other side of the globe, we know what it feels like to have worries. Some are bigger than others: Did I choose the right major? Will I be able to pay tuition for yet another semester? Some are small but still unnerving: Will I finally finish that essay that was due last week or go to see "The Town" at the movie theater?
Most of the time, we are so busy with our own problems that we tend to forget everything around us, including the responsibilities that we owe to others when it comes to our history. For those of you who want to stop reading right now because you are tired of all those stories from the past that have nothing to do with your daily life, stick with me for a couple more lines. Our past is more vivid than you think.
Even though you know that during every minute you spend reading this article, bloodshed is a reality all over the world, it is hard to imagine that most of our relatively peaceful lives is influenced by the cruelties of the past. And I know what I am talking about. As a German, I know what it means to have the sins of my ancestors at the back of my head each and every day.
While I know that I am not responsible for what happened long before I was born, I still have a responsibility in the present to act in remembrance of those deeds and of those who suffered from them. Few nations do not have any blood on their hands, and therefore, most of us should be able to relate to these feelings. While my home country certainly is at the very top of the list when it comes to the most cruel, inhuman deeds that you can imagine, even the United States has a history of persecution. This probably isn't news to you. Most of us have learned about the history of our countries at school, and most of us are aware that many family trees are interwoven with this history.
While for me it was the picture of my grandfather with a swastika on his chest, for you it might have been your family's stories about the farm they owned for which they had slaves, or the supposedly empty land settled by your ancestors. Most of us have heard about the millions that died on the North American plains and prairies, on slave ships headed to the Americas and in internment camps. We feel saddened and shocked or are often unable to even grasp the dimensions of each individual's tragedy. Yet too often, we don't feel like these injustices and cruelties are our responsibilities anymore. The victims as well as their killers are gone. The government has paid reparations. What else is there to do about it?
We might not be responsible for the deeds themselves; however, we have a responsibility to make sure that we ourselves try our hardest to do better. Why? Because we still profit from the injustice that happened so many years ago and is still present today. In North America, much of the land that today is owned by the families of long−dead European settlers was once the hunting grounds of indigenous tribes until they were killed or forced to move to reservations, just like how many German families made money off the property and belongings of Jewish families that emigrated at the last minute or were killed in the concentration camps. Various companies that employed forced laborers during the Third Reich are still prosperous today,and pay taxes that most Germans benefit from. It is an illusion to think that what happened then has no influence on our lives today.
What does taking responsibility mean? For me it means accepting the responsibility that comes along with privilege and trying hard to battle injustices that are still present today. Racism is still alive and is a struggle that indigenous Americans and other minority groups around the globe face on a daily basis. Land theft by those in power continues: Confiscation of land and relocation of farmers in South America by multinational corporations in order to plant soybeans to feed our cows is a reality. Factories all over the globe destroy the environment and, by doing so, often also destroy the livelihood of native people who don't have the power or the money to defend themselves against corporate interests.
Deeds similar to those that make us feel ashamed of our countries' histories are happening today, and it is our responsibility to act now. Since some of us are in a position — as a result of previously committed crimes as well as by sheer luck — in which we can make our voices heard, we should raise them on behalf of the voices of those who are silenced by other people's greed and drive for more power. We cannot undo what has been done. But if we still profit from these cruelties — and many of us do — we must fight similar injustices today.
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