Although the King Memorial Commons was nearly devoid of people after 2 p.m. Monday, the NIU Hillel students reading the names of Holocaust victims reminded NIU to “never forget,” speaking with a strong voice.

“Esther Paluch, 33, Poland,” said one of the speakers.

This name echoed through my head as I left the MLK Commons. Once, this was a person; a member of society. How is it possible that a society can decide to take a person such as Esther Paluch and consider her irrelevant?

Unfortunately, it’s all too easy, as participants in today’s Day of Silence would tell you, if they weren’t remaining silent to protest hate crimes and discrimination.

Both of these events express disapproval at the creation of a class of social outcasts, and NIU students who walk around campus and ignore these events are merely contributing to a pattern of segregation.

After all, it was only 150 years ago that black Americans were considered “soulless” by Southern plantation owners, a faulty theology used to justify slavery in a devoutly Christian society. Later, only 60 years ago, Japanese-Americans were held in internment camps during World War II.

Today, Darfur is the latest genocide, and although it is not an American conflict, it is evidence that humanity must remain vigilant. This vigilance is even more important now, with the growing divide between lower-class immigrants and the established upper-middle class in this nation.

Ethnic conflict often erupts out of situations like this, where society allows an attitude of segregation to exist between “us” and “them.”

But these conflicts are not always ethnic. The violence at Reilly’s this past weekend and the Virginia Tech massacre are further examples of how our society is at risk. These separate incidents are proof that we live in a society where people can rationalize the total erasure of another person, even in DeKalb, over something as simple as an alcoholic beverage.

Luis Noriega, 25, America.

This man was considered as irrelevant to one person with malicious intent. For some reason, this justified the intent to use violence on him.

Sadly, society is always just one step away from this situation, especially as people take others for granted. When is the last time you talked to the person who cleans up your residence hall floor? When have you wished your dining hall attendant a good weekend or holiday?

What are their names?

In this fast-paced society, it’s all too easy to corral other people into a group of automatons, working in tandem to serve our needs. With the advent of the drive-thru and Internet shopping, the ability to further isolate the people that interact with us has grown stronger.

Once you cordon them off into a category, they are no longer equal, and it becomes a simple matter of “us” and “them.” If you don’t appreciate these people and the work they do, you have already taken the first step toward the next Holocaust or Darfur. You have already made a decision to see humanity in factions, instead of as human beings.

And this is why it’s important to “never forget.”