|
A few years ago 800,000 people were slaughtered with machetes and machine guns in Rwanda (an African country).
Many were raped and tortured, or had their limbs hacked off and left to die slowly. In fact, so many people were killed that the country was overflowing with dead bodies and neighboring countries complained they were piling up on the banks of rivers and clogging up dams.
An average of 8,000 people were killed everyday; faster than the Nazis at any time during the holocaust. Once the killing started, the US, along with several European nations removed their troops stationed there to protect the Tutsis from the Hutus.
The Hutus were determined to "cleanse" their nation of the Tutsis. And, as UN trucks drove away from Tutsi hide-out's, where they could be protected, the people threw themselves in front of UN trucks and begged the troops to stay or take them away. Many even begged to be killed. They knew they were going to die, and that it would be much less torturous and horrible to be killed quickly by UN troops with a machine gun than by a Hutu machete, or shot with a Hutu machine gun.
At one school turned hide-out, as the UN trucks pulled away they could hear machine gun fire and screams as the killing began. A reporter who visited the school the next day observed that of the approximately 1,500 people there, perhaps no more than 5 or 7 escaped.
The US government referred to this "situation" as a genocide as early as 50 days into the killing, yet voted to remove rather than assign more troops to Rwanda. In the end. 800,000 people were murdered in 100 days.
The US promptly apologized, prosecuted several war criminals and provided a little aid. In one area of Rwanda, where there had been about 250,000 Tutsis before the killing started, less than 8,000 remained.
Where was the outrage? Where was the public outcry?
When 13 children are murdered in Colorado, the nation arises with anger to demand legislation banning all guns, forcing children to attend Church against their will, and to put a police officer in every classroom. You can't turn on the TV or radio without hearing about the incident in Colorado, yet when 800,000 people were slaughtered in Rwanda, we gave them a passing nod in the news, an apology from our president, and some money.
Excuse me while I hang my head in shame.
Black, white or human?
Certainly, the children in Colorado were among our own, yes it is a tragedy, but how can we raise such a sorrow for a few when we can ignore so many? Because the many were not our own? Because they were not white? Because they were African? Rwandan? Not American? Not one of us? Less than us? Less than human?
Human life is valuable. American human life is valuable. And Rwandan human life is valuable. To grieve to high heaven over the tragic murder of a few of the former but yawn and ignore the wanton slaughter of many of the latter compels us to ask, how would you feel if the cops knew there were two crazy kids with guns killing people in a school, they had already killed half the kids in the school, and, instead of doing something about it, they said: "Well, we don't want our security guards or staff getting hurt."
So they rescued the teachers and security guards, secretaries and chefs, then, despite the cries for help from the wounded and dying children, they decided to sit back and wait for the situation to go away. How would that make you feel?
This, is in essence, is exactly what happened in Rwanda.
Don't get me wrong: I feel enormous sympathy for the children who died, and those who survive them. It was a terrible thing and I am sickened by the twisted individuals who killed them. But should we value one human life over another?
For every person who died in the Colorado massacre, about 61,538 people were brutally killed and/or raped and tortured then killed in Rwanda. In both cases humans were murdered, humans died, but that is not the only connection between the two.
Hate is the answer
Many blame the Colorado tragedy on guns or "those gosh darned teenagers and their rock and roll music." That isn't the problem. Ban guns, and people will find another way to kill, maybe a more effective way: bombs, knives, machetes, baseball bats, cars.
If you wanna kill somebody, not having access to a gun won't stop you. You'll find another way.
Gun's aren't the problem; hate is.
We teach hate, preach hate, entertain with hate, cater to it, honor it, and praise it as a paragon of virtue.
I've seen the dark, and it is hatred.
We indoctrinate children with racial slurs, homosexual slurs, and other profanities every day.
Are you teaching your kids to hate? Are you telling them that being "another race" is wrong? That being gay is wrong? They learn it at school, on TV and at home. They learn it's okay to insult, pound, slam, spit on, put off, despise, ignore, laugh at and loath others. They learn to hate.
It is hate, and no matter how you justify it when you classify a group of people as being "wrong" or "immoral" or less-than-us, it stirs hate, tells children it's okay to hate, and as this social disease spreads it erupts into violence.
You can only push a person so far until they fall off a ledge, or a cliff, or the edge of the earth. Hate causes violence. If we didn't hate each other, there would be no reason to kill. If we stopped teaching our children to hate, they would find fewer reasons to kill, we would find fewer dead to mourn at home and, maybe, eventually, in Rawanda.
|