Wednesday, January 27, 2010

"Mother, what was war?"

"I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, "Mother, what was war?"
~Eve Merriam ("Quotations"

I have recently been really moved with compassion toward the human race. Compassion? Maybe sympathy is a better word. Recently, I have opened up an ocean of emotional attachment to the poor in heart of the world. I began reading Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust. Hurry up and start reading it yourself. I will not dive into details or particulars about the book. Needless to say, Immaculee Ilibagiza, a Tutsi native of Rwanda, tells a heart-wrenching autobiography of her life. She describes how life went from good to a nightmare in practically a day's time. The sad thing is all of her suffering was the complete brutality caused by racism, the disgusting root of all of this world's problems. I'm not finished with the book, so I'll post my review of it after I am finished.

What disturbs you? You want to know what disturbs me? The fact that no matter how advanced we may become in society, we cannot stop history from repeating itself. Today, I researched a little bit on the Sudanese Civil War to discover the things that ignorance covers up for you. My research was in response to this photograph of a Sudanese boy by Sebastiao Salgado (Salgado).
I love this kid. I love his smile. This photograph was taken at the Natinga School for the Displaced in Sudan (Salgado). About 2000 boys, between the ages of 8 and 18, live at this center hoping for a future free from strife, but fully realizing that although they may hope, history tells a more cynical tale (Kirkus). Civil War is nothing new to our world or theirs. That is a sad fact to me. I wish that I could sit here, researching the 50-year Sudan conflict, and discover that Sudan is unique, that other countries do not have wars, genocide, and mass murders like Sudan has had ("Timeline"). Unfortunately, only a little earlier in my post, I commented on a similar Civil dispute that occurred in Rwanda that resulted in mass death due to genocide and war, not any different than Sudan. When will the human race truly? In the Sudanese Civil War, more than 1.5 million people were killed. 4 million more are left homeless refugees looking for safety wherever it can be found (Kirkus). Wouldn't it be nice if I could say that the war has stopped and that kids like the one in the picture are able to get that good education, food, and water they deserve? Yeah, it would, but unfortunately, the war has not stopped and will not for some time. Its ugly face dives into other countries and cultures like a fatal virus to take over and affect everything. In Darfur, the killings continue. The stage has been set among politicians and dignitaries. Just like in Rwanda and Sudan, the innocent and common citizens are the victims.

For now, war is still very real in our world, no matter how hard we try to ignore it. Maybe someday, we will not have to pretend like it is not happening. Maybe war will become a horrible thing that stays in the past and no longer returns to haunt us. Then, we will be able to tell our children how foolish the world used to be. I hope and pray for that day to come.

Works Cited




6 comments:

  1. That's awesome that you're reading Left To Tell. It's one of my favorite books of all time. I've actually been thinking a lot about this topic too recently. You'd think it wouldn't be so hard for people to just love each other.

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  2. I read Kendra's shout out to you in her blog, so I had to come check this post out. This is some moving stuff, Gary. Are you going to write about haiti?

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  3. Yeah, I'll write about Haiti, but first, what do you think about Haiti? What does everyone think about Haiti? What should be done?

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  5. Excellent post. I think Haiti should be a reminder that there are a lot of areas in the world that need assistance.

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