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Thursday, January 25, 2007
A MILLION Rwandans
I am in the middle of the book, Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust
How did we let it happen? How could we just stand by? According to Wikipedia, Bill Clinton has stated that the inaction of the U.S. is "the biggest regret of [his] administration". Frontline has a chronology of the U.S./U.N. actions.
AFTER the fact, the U.S. and the U.N. expressed regrets about not acting. During the killings, no one would deem the actions a genocide, thus the U.N. was free to not respond.
For 91 days during the slaughter, the author of the book, Immaculee Ilibagiza, was shut up in a tiny bathroom with seven other women. It is an absolute miracle that they were never discovered during the many times the killers searched the house for Tutsi cockroaches, as they were so inhumanely called.
As I read this book, I am touched by the depth of the spirituality that Immaculee was able to go into and draw upon as she sat in silence, fighting terror, for three months. I am grateful that there are people like the minister who hid these women - an act that could've caused him and his family to die horrible deaths. I am sickened when I read about the actions that humans are capable of doing to each other.
And I wonder... The U.S. didn't act to help the Rwandans, we are not helping the people of Darfur, and we show no compassion for the Palestinians or for the Iraqis whose lives we have destroyed. Isn't humanity about being a good neighbor, lending a hand when it is needed, having compassion and risking your safety to save another? Will someone be there for us if we need a hand?
Today I want to remember to be aware of any act of kindness that I can do for someone whose path I cross.
How did we let it happen? How could we just stand by? According to Wikipedia, Bill Clinton has stated that the inaction of the U.S. is "the biggest regret of [his] administration". Frontline has a chronology of the U.S./U.N. actions.
AFTER the fact, the U.S. and the U.N. expressed regrets about not acting. During the killings, no one would deem the actions a genocide, thus the U.N. was free to not respond.
For 91 days during the slaughter, the author of the book, Immaculee Ilibagiza, was shut up in a tiny bathroom with seven other women. It is an absolute miracle that they were never discovered during the many times the killers searched the house for Tutsi cockroaches, as they were so inhumanely called.
As I read this book, I am touched by the depth of the spirituality that Immaculee was able to go into and draw upon as she sat in silence, fighting terror, for three months. I am grateful that there are people like the minister who hid these women - an act that could've caused him and his family to die horrible deaths. I am sickened when I read about the actions that humans are capable of doing to each other.
And I wonder... The U.S. didn't act to help the Rwandans, we are not helping the people of Darfur, and we show no compassion for the Palestinians or for the Iraqis whose lives we have destroyed. Isn't humanity about being a good neighbor, lending a hand when it is needed, having compassion and risking your safety to save another? Will someone be there for us if we need a hand?
Today I want to remember to be aware of any act of kindness that I can do for someone whose path I cross.
posted by Carol at 9:37 AM
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