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Genocide Remembrance

May 05, 2005

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, marking the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps 60 years ago. It's not easy to segue into such grim territory in the middle of featuring my Mexican vacation pictures, but in life we all experience beauty and horror. We live in an imperfect world, but I have a desire to improve it, even if it's only one grain of sand at a time.

Remembering genocide isn't fun, but it is important. With the massacre of 800,000 people in Rwanda only a decade ago, and the current horrors in Dafur, we shouldn't turn our eyes the other way. The suffering of one human being increases the suffering of all human beings. My pain is your pain, and my neighbor's suffering is my suffering. Whether we recognize it, or even consciously feel it, the truth is this ~ All is one.

A couple years ago I produced an interactive exhibit of Kimberlee Acquaro's photographs of the survivors of the Rwandan Massacre. You can learn so much through the eye of the camera, and through the words of this heartbreaking story. Watch it here.

Posted by vincent at May 5, 2005 12:00 PM

Comments

Thank-you for helping us to remember.

Posted by: amy at May 5, 2005 09:43 PM

Here, here! Thank you for helping us to remember. I checked out your video, and once again, I am impressed!

It is my personal belief that without extrememe evil, we could not have extreme good. For there to be hot, there has to be cold. For there to be happy there has to be sad. After all, how would we recognize one without the other?

Posted by: Terry murphy at May 8, 2005 02:56 AM

I saw Hotel Rwanda in theaters and couldn't sleep for days afterward. I felt such a burden to DO something that it was too much to take.

I prayed for a long time and came to the conclusion finally, that the best thing for me to do is to work to end prejudice in my own life. After all, that was really the reason 800,000 people died that year in Africa. If I can stamp it out in my own life, maybe I can save the life of at least one person. And one is someone.

Posted by: Kirsten at May 9, 2005 02:41 PM

thank you for this. i just watched 'sometimes in april' and i have hotel rwanda sitting on top of my dvd player waiting for me to screw up the courage to watch it.

i was so shocked watching 'sometimes in april'. i am so ignorant, i truly thought these were tribal people, living in desert like conditions. i never imagined this could have happend in 'civilization'. please know i hate myself for being so ignorant, so protected and so small minded. your exhibit has touched me deeply, and i too am seeking to end prejudice in my own life.

how can we allow darfur to happen after this?

Posted by: bobbie at May 12, 2005 06:17 PM