Current reading

I am finally getting around to reading We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Phillip Gourevitch. It is about Rwanda and the genocide that occurred in the mid-90's. Happy book, huh? I have actually found it a very inspiring book. How do people survive and recover with these types of life events? Don't get me wrong. I am not laughing as I am reading this book. It has made me very angry at our society that doesn't get as upset about genocide in an African country as we do when similar or events of less horror get us riled up. The atrocities are very upsetting and it only makes me question my place in this world. I do have a responsibility to stay informed and protest for action.

I have always been interested in how humans respond in horrible circumstances. My reading has always followed civil rights workers who risked their lives for their rights. I've learned so much about the everyday person in the South who stood in line to register for vote, been denied that right and then faced the consequences for even daring to take a stand. Reading the stories from Holocaust survivors and how they dealt with the genocide happening around them has always inspired me. Primo Levi and Viktor Frankl are two of the most influential writers that I have ever read. I've also been intrigued by how people join sides with the oppressors and repress others. What made some Jewish concentration camp members become Kapos and brutalize their fellow people? What made someone take a machete and kill their neighbor? What would I do in a similar situation? In college, I wrote a lengthy essay on Jewish Kapos, doctors in the camps, and others who were placed into that situation. This book raises some of the same questions.

Anything I say will sound so simple just as I think my above paragraphs are about as intelligent as something Elston would write on the subject. I don't mean to bash my dog's skills but it is so hard to put in words how it feels to read something like this book and to be inspired by his writing. It is such a well-written book. I recommend it especially if you are interested in human rights. If you don't know anything about Rwanda then pick up this book. I almost finished and I plan on reading some of his other essays and interviews on this subject.