I wish I did not have to write this article, I wish I did not hear the words that I did.

Whatever the context of the quote- it was wrong.

Alas, "fake news!" I sure hoped that the words I heard him say were just my imagination.

Now, even with context, this phrase troubled me because of how easily he said it. This phrase isn't the point of this article, cultures are the point.

My poor nation, divided by hatred and increasing polarization. People do not want to talk to each other, and radicals such as Neo-Nazis are taking advantage of this situation, widening the racial gap and increasing hate.

Citizens! We cannot keep being divided in this way, we must show love and understanding to all races. I cannot urge this strongly enough, listen to people of different races- listen to their concerns, their traditions and history and you may learn something.

To the point: the man I'm talking about is President Trump, and the phrase I'm referring to is "these people are worse than animals."

I believe it's a well-known fact that I oppose Trump on many policy issues, and do not have much of anything in common with him.

This statement like many of Trump's statements was very off the wall, but that made it all the more troubling.

You can tell a lot about a person by how they treat animals- somebody who is compassionate to their pet dog or cat is usually just as compassionate to their fellow humans.

But somebody who abuses or is cruel to animals will be cruel to humans. Also, somebody who says "humans are animals" is dehumanizing and paves the way for cruelties.

History is riddled with rulers who divided people by something artificial like race. By doing this the ruler increases strength and dominates the people by becoming a strongman, while the people are preoccupied with hating each other.

This, in turn, leads to anarchy or a one-man rule. Both options will result only in a nation's ruination, and oppression.
These options we can avoid if we listen carefully.

Cultures are amazing.

Think about the first time you had a cuisine from another country, heard a language that wasn't your own or heard a story from a foreign country.

It was magnificent, right? Young minds love learning new things, especially about other cultures!

I don't know about you, but I always had a wonder about me when it came to foreign cultures. I saw them as interesting, and cool.

When I was little (around 8 or 9?) I had an interactive musical globe that played music from around the world. I memorized every country of the world by playing on that globe each day.

The librarian of the small town where I grew up knew me as the girl who would get books on every country- Myanmar, Denmark, Thailand, Bolivia, Bahrain, Tunesia, France, Russia, Paraguay, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, any country on this earth I wanted to read about. I remember going through the -stan countries and enjoyed reading about Kazakistan, Tajikistan and the others. I wanted to know all the traditions, all the customs, everything. My childhood game on long car rides was to go through the world naming every country according to the letter of the alphabet we were on (forever sad there is no country that begins with X, so we always used Mexico because it had an X in it)

"Uganda! Your turn"

"Ahh my turn again, Venezuela- they have the highest waterfall!"

What happened to that childhood wonder of wanting to learn about a culture that isn't your own or wanting to eat food from India, read a story from the Democratic Republic of the Congo while enjoying a traditional song from Ukraine?

When did cultures become a reason to hate? When did different customs get seen as "inferior" instead of "unique?" We all have the same human DNA, we all have the same capacity for feelings and intelligence- who gets to decide I'm more human because my skin is white?

People also seem to assume you have to be from another country in order to know about the culture. If you aren't part Mongolian, why learn about Mongolia?

Terrible mistake! All cultures contribute to the human story and teach us important lessons about human nature and history. Every culture has a story that is worth learning. With how fluid the world is, chances are you probably will encounter somebody from another country. This is what makes life interesting-- culture and other cultures that aren't your own.

I'm a mixed American whose ancestors came before the revolution but I still have an appreciation and fascination with cultures that aren't my own. This doesn't mean pretending to be something you are not, you can still be and share your own culture but appreciate others. There is a balance. I'm not going to pretend I'm from Poland, but I can still appreciate Polish stories, and enjoy the food. Cultures are what makes life interesting, and citizens of this earth, we have a wonderful opportunity to learn about every culture and see them as our friends, different yet special.

My First Encounter with a Nazi.

In my high school days, I was doing a political poll to see if people were "pro-life" or "pro-choice."

I came to one woman who flat out told me that, "Hispanics are not humans" and she believed they should have their population controlled.

At this point, my indignation became as impassable as the Andes Mountains, who was she to call an entire race "not human" and call for population control?

I felt honestly sick to my stomach hearing such a statement, and my heart probably sunk lower than Angel Falls. Also, my determined indignation remained as unyielding and impenetrable as the most resolute liberator.

Years went by, and I assumed she was just a racist person- a totally isolated incident. Nobody else is that terrible right? Why would anybody want a whole race to disappear?

This lady wasn't pro-life, or pro-choice- this lady was arguing for an entire race to be aborted so they can no longer reproduce.

This is the result of dehumanizing a race and justifying hatred.

Yes, Culture Matters.

Please learn about them! Knowing another country's history, politics and culture will enrich your understanding of how to communicate with others. Yes there are differences between cultures, but this isn't a bad thing- this is very good!

Obviously, your upbringing effects much of your life- a girl growing up in Sweden, and a girl growing up in China will have different worldviews and traditions. These girls can share their traditions and learn alot about each other. Ultimately the world would be a better place if they share and learn. Even within the same country, there are many different cultures- a middle class American and a working-class American will live in two very different worlds.

But is this a reason for hate? Is this a reason to deny the truth that all humanity is created equal? We all have the same human capacity to love, dream and make the world a better place.

Does a person from Lithuania have more of a right to live than a person from Iraq?

NO!

I could not say this any stronger. Differences are what makes the world a special and interesting place, it should make us come together as a society and learn from other cultures. Keep the childhood wonder of a little child finding Ecuador on a map and wanting to eat an empanada.
Keep the wonder of when you first heard an Italian song, Araban Nights or saw pictures of people from Brundi wearing their traditional outfits.

Remember that we all are precious humans living on this earth, and as different as we may be we all have hearts and we all have dreams.

Mr. President, I usually keep my tact and diplomacy but you are very wrong. Even in context, there is no reason for such a statement to dehumanize people.

Yes, people can do horrible and awful things I cannot deny this-- much of the horrible things on this earth are a result of racism and hatred.

This Strategy Has Been Used Before

In every region of the world, the dehumanizing strategy has been used. Every nation has great accomplishments and a dark past. That is what history is and we must learn from the ugly side.

In my last article, I wrote about the liberator of South America- Simón Bolívar. A Complex and intriguing character, Bolívar made his mark on history.

Bolívar was a strong believer in human equality, and South America at the time had an entrenched system of division between native peoples, Africans, and Europeans/Creoles. This was put in place by the Spanish Empire to make it harder for them to unite and rebel.

Bolívar was largely naive at first, he naturally wanted to trust people and longed for unity. He thought it would be easy for everybody to come together against tyranny, right?? Completely easy!

The king of Spain must have been laughing in his throne, nope! Racism was so entrenched it became one of Bolívar's hardest hurdles to overcome. He eventually succeeded in uniting people against the empire, but when Bolívar became president the racial hatreds between people caused the continent great grief.

In United States history, slaves were dehumanized and seen as property. This led to untold brutality from slave owners, and appauling human rights violations.
Native Americans as well were dehumanized and many were killed or faced atrocities like the infamous trail of tears.

Haiti, to an even more extreme degree, experienced cruel slave owners who saw people of a different skin as "property" and not humans with God-given rights.

France saw dehumanization based on social-economic class. Rwanda faced intense genocide based on what tribe the people belonged to.

Finally, Nazi Germany, the most famous example used, "not human" as an excuse to send Jewish people to the gas chambers.

All humanity is created equal, and by this truth, I stand. We all have value, and no human is inferior to another.

We must stand together and not let anyone divide us. We must share our cultures, and appreciate others. By this we may mend our wounds, and we will become a stronger world if we show interest and love of other cultures, in contrast to hatred and prejudice.

Keep your childhood wonder, and appreciate this beautiful, diverse world which will become less foreign and more like a friend.