"Fools", said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
I’ve seriously avoided thoughts of Rwanda over the last several months. Cecile Nyiramana, a Quaker from Rwanda, is on a US tour raising consciousness about the genocide. I studiously avoided getting involved. In 1994, 800,000 Tutsis were killed by the ruling Hutus. I’ve read news accounts and fictionalized, powerful versions of the truth surrounding the matter. There are issues regarding restorative justice and international relations that could consume my life if I chose to address them.
The United States at that time was probably reluctant to help because of our sad experience in Somalia the prior year. The United Nations will to help seemed to evaporate with the death of ten UN peacekeepers. The French and Belgian colonial powers had done so much to set the stage and had such vested economic interests that they lacked the moral power to prevent the carnage. Neighbor rose up against neighbor. Greed was triumphant. Things will never be the same for these people in their homeland.
I get that. And I’m carrying some guilt about not being as supportive as I might have been when Ms. Nyiramana was in town. When she was here, we were at the Chicago Botanic Gardens.
I was reminded of this by a post by Danny Miller that I read this morning. Read it, please, and I’ll leave it to you to witness how gracefully Danny ties together his thoughts about the movie "Shake Hands with the Devil" and the death of the much loved movie star.
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