Today in my AP Government class we finished watching Hotel Rwanda, a riveting, heart-wrenching true story of one man's brave attempt (and success!) to save 100s of Rwandan refugees. These refugees were both Hutu and Tutsi. Paul risked everything for these people.
At the end of the movie the producers stated that once the Tutsi army had successfully pushed back the Hutus, over one million lives had been lost to the genocide.
Where was America when all of this was happening? Watching O.J. Simpson's first trial. And no, I'm really not exaggerating.
There is a line in the movie that is along the lines of "Rwanda is nothing to the world, we don't have anything of importance to give them, nor anything to them worth saving." But what about valuable, irreplaceable, LIVES? I know that many leaders of many countries do think "What does so-and-so country have to give us in return for what we'll be doing for them?" What kind of thinking is this? Why do we not learn from our mistakes?
The same thing is happening in Darfur right now, and the news is as silent on Darfur as it was on Rwanda. Do we not realize that PEOPLE are dying, horrible, unnecessary deaths? What is wrong with the rest of the world? Where are our priorities? Do we hear about the raid that killed 200 people? No, we are forced to listen to the latest Britney Spears update instead. Filling our minds and wasting our time with useless information. All because Americans tune in more to that crap. Perhaps the news world should stop worrying about their ratings and speak the truth for once. Get people riled up so we can make a change NOW instead of regretting ten years later not having done anything.
If you've never seen Hotel Rwanda, I dare you to watch it. It's guaranteed to make you cry if you value human life in any way.
That's my soap box today.
In His Love,
Samantha
Amazing Road Trips
2 weeks ago
