Humanity

We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch tells the story of Rwanda’s genocide in 1994 and the efforts to rebuild. As I read this book I was struck with awe at how in the world in which we live, this was allowed to happen. Prior to reading this book I went to see the movie Hotel Rwanda and knew of the tragedy and how it was allowed to happen by the entire western world. I was amazed at how this happened in my life time and yet I really knew nothing of it until this year. How does one live in a world where this can happen and not know anything about it? I also realized that while this only happened eleven years ago, that I was only thirteen and was probably too interested in the things of a young teen girl, such as boys and friends.

Upon realizing this I have felt slightly less guilty for my lack of knowledge on such a major event in our history, and yet I can’t help but think that it is this kind of justification that made the entire world turn their collective heads as nearly a million innocent people were murdered, when Rwandan’s turned on their neighbors, literally the people who they had grown up with and lived with their entire lives. Is it really ok to say “Oh that is not my problem,” or “I was only a child, it isn’t my fault I didn’t know any better?” Is our human existence so detached from one another that we will not aid those who are truly in need, when we see no immanent threat to ourselves? What does it mean to share the planet with others? Are we going to claim as Cain did, “I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?” Or will we rise with humanity and grasp to aid and lift one another from despair and sorrow in whatever capacity we can?

While reading I wondered what does it mean to be humane? There is more to humanity that simply not committing atrocities upon our brethren. We should be doing all that we can in order to stop other when they are committing them as well. It is certainly not humane for us to sit back and observe the gross violations of human rights that happen almost daily and say, “There is nothing that I can do. They are half a world away.” It is true there is so little that we can do as individuals from with in our limited view and sphere, but one person can be the factor of change in a world. One person can influence many to do that which is good, or that which is evil, as manifested in Rwanda. As we live our lives we should be looking for ways that we can serve others to better their lives and to bring peace and happiness to them in their bleakest hours.

How does you rebuild after such horrible crimes against humanity have been committed against you? How do you go on knowing that tomorrow could be that day that it is your turn to be killed? How do you rebuild your life after it has been shattered and your family has been slaughtered? There are many people dealing with these questions today. It takes a long time for the healing to take place, if it ever will, and I don’t see how anyone could ever forget the pains that they suffered. In his book, Philip Gourevitch asks himself the question “Is there any hope for this place?” he answers it with a quote that was given to him by Paul Rusesabagina, a survivor of the genocide, “With my countrymen-Rwandans-you never know what they will become tomorrow.”

I don’t know the answer to this question of humanity. All that I do know is that I hope that through out my life I am an able to make a change for the better, even if it is just in one person’s life, and to help them realize that they are loved by God, even when they feel totally alone and forgotten. Perhaps this is the answer to the question; knowing that we are all beloved children of God, and that he desires for us all to be happy, maybe this is how we can solve the hatred and cruelty that is so prevalent in the world today. If we can take the time to realize that we each have the right to live and to experience all the good that life has to offer, maybe then we could live together in a state of Utopia.