Here is what I told my kids in the car one morning on the way to school after explaining the Holocaust and genocide to them:
The second we start to devalue a person because of who they are or a group of people they belong to, we become a bit like Hitler and we start the first steps that lead to genocide. Our job is to love people. What labels they have from society don't matter. They are people and we love them. There is nothing to add to that and even more, nothing to take away from it. We love them. Each person has no greater or lesser value no matter what. We are each unique and amazing and we each deserve to be loved for who we are. None of us have earned that, but we all need it. And kids, if you never hear anything else I say, hear that.
I didn't say this, but I should have. Life is not about you and it's not about me. It is about all of us individually and together. We're all interconnected and interdependent. Even the smallest pebble tossed into a still pond sends ripples out across all of the water because the water is as connected molecule to molecule as we are person to person.
So I'll say something to everyone who reads this today. I love you. Hear that. I mean it with my whole heart. I'm saying it because I mean it and I'm saying it because it's true. I might only be a pebble, but even my three little words can ripple this whole human pond.