Saturday, January 7, 2012

Giving a Darn

It has sat on my bookshelf for over a year.

I've been much too afraid to watch it.
Afraid of the images:

rape
murder
burning
looting.

But I watched it
today.

And the part that really, really bothers me is that we don't appear to care.
There's nothing in it for us- no oil, no power, no financial gain.

It's just this nasty thing thats happening somewhere far away.
And what can be done- really.

I don't know. Its the same helpless feeling that is evoked when we hear about Iraq, Yemen, Rwanda, Syria,
or next door.

Watch this movie, if you can. It's so informative, and its definitely not filled with gratuitous violence. I was struck with how much more violence we're comfortable with on our living room televisions, or in the movies we'll pay money to watch in a theatre while munching on snacks.

Do I pretend to have any answers to why we should care or be informed about the unbelievable, inconceivable injustices that are happening around us as we speak? Sadly, I don't.

But I think its important to keep wrestling with the questions. I think that if we dare to care, and if we dare to listen, we will no longer be able to do nothing.

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