A lovely, moving video produced by the Anti-Defamation League imagines what the world would be like if a series of human rights leaders, from Martin Luther King Jr. to Anne Frank, had not been cut down by hate and bigotry.
Set to the music of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” the video was made to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Anti-Defamation League. It uses a montage to conceive of Imagine A World Without Hate.
“In our work over the last 100 years, and particularly in the aftermath of the Holocaust and other incidents of hate, we have always asked the question, ‘What if?’ What if America had been a more tolerant and welcoming society? What if more people had stood up to defy Hitler? What kind of world could we imagine for our children and grandchildren if more people stood up to say ‘no’ to racism, bigotry, prejudice and anti-Semitism?” ADL National Director and a Holocaust survivor Abraham Foxman said in a statement.
“As we look toward the future, we are hopeful that the dream of a world without hate will become a reality, as more and more individuals join ADL as allies in building a world where hate is not fostered, and where diversity is embraced as a cherished strength.”
The video starts with a picture of an aged Martin Luther King Jr. above a mock newspaper headline that reads: “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 84, Champions Immigration Reform.”
The montage continues with a picture of Anne Frank, the young Jewish girl whose diaries became a chronicle of Nazi Germany and required reading for every schoolchild across the globe. A picture is displayed of her as an older woman, whose 12th novel has won the Nobel Prize for literature.
James Byrd Jr., who was tied to the back of a pickup truck and dragged to his death by racists in Texas, is shown in the video as a 63-year-old man who has rescued a girl from a burning building.
Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin, the first openly gay politician Harvey Milk, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and murdered gay student Matthew Shepard are others killed because of hate and featured in the video achieving great feats to help mankind. If only they had lived.
“If we all stood up to bigotry, we could change history,” the video caption reads, as it ends.
Posted on Thursday night, Imagine A World Without Hate had been viewed more than 380,000 times as of early Friday afternoon.
