Friday, October 1, 2010

East Side, West Side, Genocide

According to this news article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11450093 the slaughter of Rwandan refugees in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the 1990's could be considered genocide. My first reaction to this was, "Well, duh." My second reaction was, "What good is applying that label to the past violence if we're still ignoring the current violence, or the connections between the two?"

As my first academic year outside of school begins, I am thinking about how to put my education on genocide and human rights to use. I'm teaching 7th graders how to put the "mitzvah" in Bar Mitzvah, I'm going on a Bearing Witness retreat to Auschwitz and Birkenau, followed by my own pilgrimage to Vilnius, and most importantly, I'm working in a deli. In a lot of ways I'm still burnt out from Div III and I'm not sure how to go about saving the world on my own time now. But then I read this article about the Congo and I think, "Man people are so stupid!" and realize that I guess I just need to stay up on this soapbox a little longer and then maybe I won't be alone in this whole world-saving thing.

Now you know. And knowing is half the battle.

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