"Night"

Today in English, we finished watching an Oprah special with Elie Wesel, author and surviver of the Nazi concertration camps. Wesel wrote his true account of the camps, the horrors that he witnessed in his famed book entitled "Night".

I have currently finished it, and wow, what a story. So this lead to some class descussion regarding people, such as Oprah, using a situation like that to boast ratings, or if they are just actually trying to promote awarness, and "Lease we forget" what those people went through. I think there was a bit of confusion on some of the faces in the class, not really getting what the teacher was talking about, but at one point, some mentioned about the current situation in Dufur, Sudan, Iraq, etc etc and the list could go on and on.

We are aware of the situations there, but yet what are we doing? Sitting on our butts and going, "That's so sad, but man, am i Glad that that is not me there." Are we any better then? Some may argue, "what can i do? I am just one person in the world" Yeah but so was Martin Luther, Princess Diana, Mother Teresa, the Canadian General who helped in Rwanda, Hotel Rwanda-another story of genocide. But you may say, "Yeah but those were amazing people, with amazing lives. Look in your own community- a mayor, city council, church leader, youth worker, the seniors, your parents. To change the world, or anything, start with yourself-lend a helping hand here or there, recycle, get involved at school, make someones day with a smile. Wouldn't that be something if a smile here or there could prevent anger, hate, war? I know it may sound extreme, but what if Hitler had had a few kind words said to him, his mind might have change. None the less, its something to think about...