The Evil Petting Zoo

The Cognito Clan finally watched Hotel Rwanda last night, a film that could best be described as both "inspiring" and "soul-crushing." It also prompted a brief debate between Mother Cognito and I after the film was over. She thought that, while the film handled the way the world community gave up on the Tutsis rather well, it underplayed the Hutu militias, who started the whole thing in the first place. I argued that while it only took one psycho to stab Kitty Genovese, it took thirty people to watch her and do nothing as the guy came back and stabbed her twice. We both reached an agreement: in the event of genocide, both the active and the inactive are equally responsible.

Unfortunately, the world doesn't seemed to have learned a lesson from Rwanda. For every Kosovo, there are two Darfurs. Right now, Christians in Sudan are being targeted for rape and murder by Islamist raiding parties. And, despite the brief flashes of media blitz, no one's really doing anything about it.

This isn't the first time. Hell, Rwanda wasn't the first time. We knew about Auschwitz during the war, but we did nothing. FDR's brave rationalization for not bombing the tracks and stopping the flow of victims was, "They'll just rebuild them, anyway."

We have to make sure that "Never Again" doesn't have a little asterisk added to it. Write to your Congressman about Darfur. And give money to Amnesty International; at least they're one step ahead of us when it comes to suffering.