Pages

Saturday, August 21, 2010

FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA - I CAN'T THINK OF A MORE IMPORTANT LEGACY THAN TAKING EFFECTIVE STEPS TO END GENOCIDE

If you are a Darfur activist, for sure, I ask you to watch this video. And if you don't know about genocide, Darfur and the effect of our silence on this humanity-defining issue, I ask you to stop and think how you would feel if the whole world, the people of each community, nation, leaders of the countries didn't care enough to take any steps to stop the wiping out of your life, your family members' lives, your neighborhood, your community, your whole reason for being simply because of your ethnicity. We as a human race have done this silent treatment about genocide for every genocide this planet's people has tolerated. And in 2010 we still tolerate genocide because we and our leaders' political will is so weak that even those who should do better, don't. Example of one of those leaders: Barack Obama. I can't think of a more important legacy than for a leader to stand up - to stand alone if he or she must - and begin taking effective steps to end genocide.

....................................................................


....................................................................
Uploaded by Thespadecaller

Text by Thespadecaller

This Spadecaller video subtitled "Anti-social Studies," features quotes exclusively written by eighth grade students about Oskar Schindler, the holocaust, and related topics. About the music: John Williams composed the score for the epic movie, Schindler's List. Williams was awed by this amazing film, and felt it would be too challenging. He said to Spielberg, "You need a better composer than I am for this film." Spielberg replied, "I know. But they're all dead!" The main theme is played on piano by John Williams; and following Spielberg's suggestion, he hired Itzhak Perlman to perform it on the violin. End of Youtube text

When I visited the Dachau concentration camp near Munich, I spent the entire day there. As I stood in the room where two ovens had been placed to burn human bodies of the victims of the silence of genocidal acts for 12 years from 1933 until 1945 - I stood beside German high school students who were there for a field trip. The Germans teach about their history in school apparently. I never learned anything about the USA genocide on the native Americans in all the years of my education - all the way through my masters degree. I learned about it well into my adult years - on my own. I never had a lesson or textbook that taught about the slave trade in the newly formed country with its Declaration of Independence and Constitution. I think it is time we teach about our history - all of it - not just some of it.

No comments:

Post a Comment