🇨🇦Wayne🇨🇦

TODAY IS VOTING DAY. PLEASE USE YOUR VOICE. I wrote these words because I believe we are at a moment when we must decide what kind of world we want to live in. I grew up in post-war Germany, hiding beneath school tables during bombing drills, being taught to fear the Russians. Later, I traveled to Russia, sat at their tables, shared their food, and discovered that the people I had been taught to fear were just like me. I traveled further. I met people from countries and cultures I had been told to distrust. And everywhere, I found the same thing: families, kindness, generosity, love, and people who simply wanted to live their lives in peace. I learned that hatred is not inherited. It is taught. And today, I see that lesson being forgotten again. Please vote. Vote for humanity. Vote for compassion. Vote against hatred, division, and the dangerous belief that some human beings are worth less than others. Our children are watching. History is watching. And the world we create tomorrow depends on what we are willing to stand for today. #ThePeopleWeWereTaughtToFear --- THE PEOPLE WE WERE TAUGHT TO FEAR by Babs Spake I grew up beneath a table, afraid of people I had never met. I was taught that Russians were the enemy. Then I traveled to Russia and found friends instead. I sat at their tables, shared their bread, and discovered hearts no different from my own. I traveled further, to places I had been told to fear, and found mothers, fathers, children, laughter, kindness, and people who would share the last piece of bread with a stranger. And I began to understand: No child is born hating another child. No baby knows which religion to fear, which skin color to distrust, or which nationality to despise. Someone teaches them. Someone draws the borders. Someone invents the enemies. Someone turns differences into dangers and fear into permission to treat another human being as less. I grew up in Germany. I know where that road can lead. It does not begin with concentration camps. It begins when we stop seeing people and start seeing categories. When a neighbor becomes an outsider. When cruelty becomes acceptable because someone tells us the person on the receiving end deserves it. And now I see those shadows returning. In America. In France. In Germany. In a world that seems to be building walls when it should be building bridges. But I have traveled. I have listened. I have broken bread with strangers. And I know this: Evil has no nationality. Goodness has no religion. Humanity has no borders. We all want the same things. To love and be loved. To protect our children. To feel safe. To belong. To have a future. So today, when you cast your vote, remember that the person on the other side of the border is not necessarily your enemy. They may be someone who would welcome you into their home, feed you with whatever they have, and offer you the very kindness you hope to find in this world. Do not inherit someone else's hatred. Question the stories. Challenge the prejudice. Choose compassion over cruelty. Choose understanding over suspicion. Because if hatred can be taught, then so can kindness. If division can be created, then unity can be built. And if we have the power to teach the next generation whom to hate, we also have the power to teach them how to love. Today, vote for the world you want to leave behind. Not a world divided by the color of our skin, the place we were born, or the God we pray to. But a world where we recognize that before anything else, we are human. And that should be enough.