Cripes!!!!

I watched someone try to scale the walls of the Holocaust Tower today. Yup. You read that correctly. I was sitting in the Tower, miraculously by myself, for maybe 3 minutes when in walks the worst of humanity. First off, before the 3 want-to-be rock climbers entered the space, every next visitor I encountered had one of two reactions: they either walked into the room made of concrete, saw it only as that, sighed disappointedly and left OR they spoke full voice asking the purpose of why the room was so dark or what it meant. Before I even had time to process the roughness of just those two things, the three adult women (if I can even say that) walked in and proceeded to try and scale the corner where the two diagonal walls met. The corner letting in the only source of light. Now I was sitting in the opposite corner, observing all that was happening before me and while some people previously thought I was a part of the room, perhaps as a statue or a paid actor, I stayed seated but when I saw this happen, especially while the three girls were laughing on the top of their lungs, I shot up and maybe because they thought I was not an actual human or just going to question/confront them (which I was) they ran out of the room leaving me standing amongst another sea of more clueless humans. 

People perplex me. No. Most people suck and it saddens me.

I had a similar experience at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews. After 20+ minutes of getting lost in the maze of the installation, I sat down on the floor and took in the magnitude of the columns around me and what they represented. I was alone for a bit but then I started to become keenly aware of all the ridiculousness around me. This teenage girl was shooting what I assume was some kind of music video with a ton of balloons, many games of tag and hide and seek were being played, a couple asked me to take their photo to which they both then struck a pose with their arms stretched out to their sides as if they were bragging about their creation BUT the man who took the cake was the one who, before I even saw his face, I overheard say to whoever he was with: “I thought there would at least be names on the concrete.” Now if this wasn’t bad enough his little comrade began to laugh and replied with a: “Yeah dude. Lets get out of here.” I guess their exit route included my little passage way because when the first man passed, he looks down at me and asked: “What are you doing on the floor? You good?” To which I just nodded— not that he saw it anyway because both of the middle-aged men were laughing and had already walked away. 

You can't make this stuff up and even if I could why would I? 

You know, it’s so easy to ask: “How could atrocities like the Holocaust even happen?” or state that “That would never happen again!” Hell, I have even said those things myself but then I am met and reminded of people like this and I quite literally think: “That is exactly how/why it could happen.” 

Maybe you think that's negative or pessimistic but honestly it’s the truth or at least my truth in this moment. It must also be said (as was pointed out to me) that this understanding may also be the reason for these memorials and museums. Beyond staying educated and remembering those who were lost, perhaps they were created to help you realize and remember that it could happen all over again in the blink of an eye. And that may be thanks to the people who roam and visit those very places beside you.