If you care about issues of prejudice and acceptance, please sign it -- even if you are outside the Central Illinois area. Showing opposition to prejudice is important, wherever you live -- and I would appreciate your support.
A note on inspiration: This photo of Eva Kor and me was taken on April 7th, during a visit Mrs. Kor made to Pana High School to talk about her experience of the Holocaust. Mrs. Kor was a young girl when she and her family were taken by train to Auschwitz; she and her twin sister were separated from the rest of the family, and the two girls were allowed to live -- as human test subjects for the sadistic Dr. Mengele.
Mrs. Kor and her sister ultimately survived the Holocaust -- and over time, Mrs. Kor began to tell their story publicly. She also formed an organization to connect surviving "Mengele twins" to each other; that group became the CANDLES Museum and Education Center (Children of Auschwitz Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors). She remains a strong advocate for human rights and -- perhaps surprisingly -- an advocate for forgiveness.
Mrs. Kor suggested that concerned citizens in our town should create a petition to show that the prejudice on Route 51 does not represent our community's values. This petition is -- in many ways -- in honour of her bravery and her decades of human rights activism. And she was kind enough to be its first signatory.
1 comment:
I lived with my family on Route 51 (but in southern Mississippi rather than Illinois) for many years. This was before I-55, so 51 was the main route. My parents owned a small store, and I enjoyed the inflow of people from faraway places. I have only happy memories of living on that highway.
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