Genocide

I saw a play a tonight entitled "The Diary of Anne Frank." It was so moving and really made me think about how we treat humanity. Could a holocaust happen again? I think it could really easily. The genocide in Rwanda has started again, and while we cozily sit at home and watch movies, there are people who have to fight to sleep within four walls.

It speaks of our blessings. We live in a land that values liberty and freedom, equality and rights. Others live where they don't know what they value; where self serving interests prevail and survival of the fittest determines the rule.

As I sat there watching the actors portraying the horrifying experience of being caught and taken away by people of their own blood, tears streamed down my face and I likened it unto Christ and how His own betrayed Him. People truly are all connected. The world is a village. As I have participated in travel, cultural exchanges and expanding the circles of my friends over oceans and across the world, I realize how alike we really all are.

I think that is the importance of exchanges and experience the world around us, realizing that we are undoubtedly connected; that we have bonds with those around us that we might not even know about, bonds of human experience. If we come to understand how we belong to one family, service for others will increase, as will peace, and goodwill.

But sometimes I feel so helpless, like there is so much to do, but I am only one voice, one heart. How can I help? What can I do? I feel like many times I turn my back on my brothers and sisters who suffer all over the world. It makes me want to cry when I think that the human spirit is conquered by people, but other spirits which have become hardened and cold. Anne Frank, a spirit full of life and color ended up as a shell, hollowed out by an inhumane society filled with cold hearts and hateful actions. How can the spirit drop so far at the hands of its own kind? An exerpt from the program from the performance reads:

". . . After a year, Otto Frank returned alone to Amsterdam from Auschwitz, a walking ghost of the man he was before the war. Time and new information finally confirmed his worst fears, and Otto Frank's horrific nightmare became his devastating reality. The day Otto Frank learned off Anne's death, Miep Gies returned Anne's diary to Otto. Though it lay untouched for weeks afterwards, Otto finally decided to edit and publish it.
Anne's diary is a beacon of hope ina world filled with violence. Anne writes that, "In spite of everything, I still believe people are good at heart."
Since 1945, the "Never Again" promise of a moratorium on genocide has been broken repeatedly. In 62 years, the fact of the holocaust has not saved 100 million people from genocide. Even now, in the Darfur genocide crisis, Janjawee fighters poison wells, rape, murder, and throw chained infants atop burning huts.
We are now reaposible. We cannot claim ignorance. The silent consent. Do you consent to genocide?" - Jack Rizzotti

I'm not sure what our role is as citizens or even as a nation. Is it our reponsibily to impose on others? to try and save them when our efforts could quite possibly go awry? But I know that we must do something.

I too believe that in spite of everything, people are good at heart.