thehpalliance:We are observing the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide and joining STAND in the
thehpalliance:We are observing the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide and joining STAND in their commemoration.From our Executive Director, Andrew Slack:“Today marks the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. When approximately 1 million innocent men, women, and children were killed in 100 days. An international community that was celebrating Schindler’s List with a message of “Never Again” revealed itself to be more interested in film and less interested in life. The lessons of the Holocaust fell on deaf ears and the memory of the murdered were spat on as those with power and influence turned the other way in the face of well funded killing operations that are an evil beyond evil. Please take action below and show the people of Rwanda that we will not forget or abandon them in the future. And let us pause and remember the unbelievable reserves of courage, vision, mourning, and processes regarding peace, coexistence, and in some cases, forgiveness that Rwandans have employed these last 20 years.And let us try and forgive ourselves for collectively allowing - actually, encouraging this genocide to have taken place (because when it did, Americans and our allies pulled out all forces and France made a fortune selling weapons to be used for the killings). This is not simply a day to remember when some Rwandans failed their friends and neighbors. This is a day when the entire international community failed to show the basic compassion necessary to live in a world that has even one iota of respect for justice, compassion itself, and love.If we are to worship that mysterious force of love, we must remember and be held collectively accountable for the approximately one million who were killed and millions more who were intimately effected by one of the most heinous 100 days in human history. Rwandans are our brothers and sisters and we treated them in a way that is beneath the most elemental levels human decency. This is a day to remember. A day of tremendous sadness beyond sadness. A day that requires our collective society to listen to the voices from 20 years ago, calling for help. A day that requires us to listen to the survivors who lived through that period or were born from the wreckage of that time. And it is a day to remember our international obligation to understand that there is no us and them. Only us. Only us. Only us.We must “love each other or perish.” And in the name of all that is sacred and holy, let us choose love. For those in Rwanda and those Congolese who continue to suffer because of the genocide that occurred in Rwanda 20 years ago. Those Rwandan women who contracted HIV due to being gang raped during the genocide as adults, teens, or as young girls. For those in Darfur that our president and the president before him continue to ignore, spitting on the memory of those who were killed during the genocide 20 years ago. Those in the Nuba mountains suffering a similar fate to Darfuris from the same leader (Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir). Those all over our world from East Burma to Northern Uganda and on and on and on.And for today and the next 100 days: we remember Rwanda’s murdered and those who love them.If humanity is to thrive or survive at all, we must take this moment and remember. Remember. Remember. We must mourn. And we must act. We must sing. And we must heal. We must cry. And we must smile. We must embrace each other. In short, must love each or perish. And let us remember Rwanda.” -- source link
#rwandan genocide#also