On December 13th, the Global Studies class went on a trip to NYC to see a holocaust museum, the 9/11 memorial and the play called come from away. The first thing to greet us when we arrived at the holocaust museum was a replica train car that was used to transport victims to the concentration camp. The tour was a very heavy experience, even though most of the information was already known. To put it simply, the museum made it feel very real. It also further affected me, because I know about people going through similar treatment who are similar to me. This is why I believe it is important for education about these topics. Allowing it to happen due to ignorance just causes it to happen more and more times and it may eventually impact the community you are a part of. I thought that perhaps we were moving forward, but talking to people from the countries who are committing atrocities today, I believe there is something to be said to expose to them the horror of what can happen. Although, I do believe tribalism is an important factor in this. The people from those countries try to justify it and ignore evidence even if they are shown it. All of this is due to allegiance to their people, and I think that idea is incredibly dangerous and the real problem that needs to be addressed, not just educating them about genocides. As for the 9/11 memorial, I think that it is one of the greatest memorials made to date. It captures a somber atmosphere and the loss associated with its design. The pits especially give a feeling of loss and something missing. I think that the best part of the memorial, though, is the names. The shining light it gives off during the dark is quite symbolic and invokes an acute emotional response. It’s as if to say that the memory of these people will shine even in the darkest of times, when all hope seems lost. Furthermore, carving the names into bronze gives off a sense of immortality to the names, to say that they will never be forgotten. I somewhat liked the play, Come From Away, but I feel as though it was made a tense situation far more comedic than it should have been, plus the music was annoying. The most interesting parts were the small monologues and the stories told, while the music detracted from quite a bit of it. It felt more like a concert with some bits about the people in between, instead of a musical. Furthermore, the beginning of the play was a bit hard to understand, and if we didn’t have some education on the event, we would have been quite lost. That said, after the rocky beginning, it was a nice way to relax and hear many different stories. I think that the best part of the play was the recurring characters and the stories they told, like the muslim man, or the woman who lost her son. It provided some much needed emotional attachment to the characters who otherwise felt very robotic.