Consider for a moment the number '6 million'. Whilst many of us have come to understand the sheer vastness of the Holocaust, we can't really comprehend the true number that is repeated time and again. 6 million Jews, 5 million others, at least 40 million under Stalin, 7 million under Pol Pot, 937 000 in Rwanda and 350 000 and growing in Darfur, Sudan.

It seems to me that, even though many have deemed it 'time to move on', the message of the Holocaust has yet to be learned. Hatred, intolerance and pure inhumanity are rife in countries and minds alike. Whether it be in the form of racism, sexism or even more prominent discrimination according to faith, every one of us has been guilty of stereotyping and prejudice.

We as a generation pride ourselves on our tolerance, but, at the same time take intellectual high-ground and slam others for their beliefs. Whatever they be...

It's time for us to open our eyes people and stop arguning over petty things, but rather to look at the bigger picture that our slight intolerance is creating. It's likely that nobody reading this is thinking about starting a genocide, but the lessons we're leaving for the next generation are hypocritical and unclear. We'd rather forget about some inconveniences and argue about crime or inflation. Wake up.

The people of Whitwell Tennessee had it right when they started 'The Paperclip Project', people who have seen the feature documentary 'Paperclips' will know what I'm talking about.

What started as a school project turned out to be a massive endeavour to remind people that true love doesn't come from a A-List film, but rather a group of people who actually care. The 8th grade kids of Whitwell Middle School began collecting paperclips in an attempt to reach 6 million and represent the souls lost in the Holocaust. The significance of the paperclips came from the Norwegian practice of wearing paper clips on their lapels to show disdain for the German occupation and Anti-Semitism.

The Paperclip Project grew and as the news spread, more and more people got involved and ultimately they were able to put up a memorial in the form of an actual cattle car that carried Jews to the camps in Nazi Germany. They were able to collect over 29 million paperclips and 11 million fill the cattle car today as a memorial to the 11 million who officially died under Hitler's regime.

In response to this I'm proposing a 'Paperclip Day'. On the 9th of November, the anniversary of Kristallnacht and the 6th anniversary of the raising of this memorial, I'm proposing that each of us wears a paperclip in rememberance of all those who died in human-caused attrocities. It should be a reminder of the importance of love and the damage that hatred and intolerance causes when it goes unchecked.