Never again..... to me.
Susana's project appealed to me because it satisfies my nagging social conscience (I want to be a game developer - unless the cure to cancer is in a Zelda dungeon somewhere, I'm not going to find it) while adressing thoughts I'd been kicking around for a couple months
Last January, I was in Israel and visited the Yad Vashem holocaust memorial. I'd gone to a hebrew day school, so I'd been educated and exposed to a lot of the ideas and images that Yad Vashem presents. It had, however, been a long time since I'd thought about the holocaust. When I was first learning about it, back in grade 6, 7, and 8, I remember being more terrified than anything else. There are some truly haunting images from that dark period, and as a kid, I just couldn't figure out how people could let that happen.
Flash forward to me as a 23 year old, coming out of Yad Vashem. The images still sicken me, but instead of a feeling of terror, I walk out of the building with an incredible burning anger, and an incredulity at that kind of violence that can exist in the world - the total disregard for the value of a life. More importantly, I don't wonder "how could people let that happen", but "how could we let that happen". If I'd been alive during WW2, I'd be asking "how could I let that happen". The same sentiment was echoed through the group I was with, a lot of "Never Agains" were said determinedly, and we left. That night, we were flicking through television channels, and moved passed a news report on Darfur so we could watch a cartoon.
When people say "Never again", they really mean "Never again to me". It's the only thing I can think of to explain the moral outrage people express at one atrocity, but the complete lack of response to the next. Sudan. Darfur. Rwanada. Bosnia. Cambodia. Never again is hollow and meaningless with action. It's not enough to step in and take action afterwards, to care for the survivors. It's not enough to hope and pray for the victims. It's not enough to feel outraged at images on a television. If one good thing should come from the Bush doctrine, let it be that a country is willing to step in and stop these attrocities before one more mass grave is dug.
While talking with Susana afterwards, she mentioned the trials that are going on around Rwanda. Specifically, she mentioned that the trials are exacerbating an already tumultuous situation, and there are fears of another genocide being triggered. Never again.....