The Holocaust, Darfur, and the Superbowl
On Saturday, I visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. It is a must-see for everyone living in this country. I will return with my 14 year old daughter, Anna Margaret. I plan to spend the entire day there, and I am not going to let her leave until she has seen every exhibit, watched every film clip and listened to every account of the horrors of that dark time.
It is sobering to think of the moral failure that allowed the holocaust to happen. And it is even more sobering to see how slowly we as a nation moved to address that systematic execution of a people. To be sure, the world has done a lot to minimize such moral failure in the future. (See Continuing Impact of the Holocaust). But genocide continues to plague the world. The horrors of Cambodia, the Balkans, Rwanda and the Sudan are all too familiar.
It is Superbowl Sunday, and as a nation we gather in the warmth and comfort of our homes, with coffee tables piled high with food, to watch an event which can command millions of dollars for only a few seconds of air time. It is a bit insane when you think about it.
Maybe it seems insane because having visited the Holocaust Museum yesterday, I know that for all my good fortune there are millions today who are experiencing horrors not unlike what was visited on the Jews in the 1940s. For all my good fortune, I know that there are millions scattered across refugee camps in Darfur who have no homes, no beds, no medicine and precious little food--victims of the genocide that has racked the Sudan. Untold millions in Sudan have been beaten, raped, displaced or killed. The genocidal assault by the government continues. And as a country (as a world) we don't quite know what to do. Maybe a little football can distract us.
What does the future hold for the Darfurian people? How can they be protected? How can their safety be assured? How can the genocide be stopped? How can the millions of women and children living in stick built huts with only a sheet of plastic for a roof, return home to reclaim and rebuild their lives? The answer to those questions will be decided by how the world responds. How well have we learned the lessons of the holocaust?
Maybe the folks who run the Superbowl should give the Holocaust Museum a free 60 second half-time spot.
What does this have to do with South Carolina children? A lot. The time has long since passed when we could pretend that something going on in a country on the other side of the world does not affect us. We are all in this together. Just because it's not in our backyard doesn't mean it does not warrent our immediate attention. We will never be truly secure as a country until we can address problems like the wholesale slaughter or men, women and children in Darfur. Confronting the problems of global poverty and unstable governement is more than charity, it is the heart of national security.
That's why it matters to our children. Because unless we have the courage and imagination to engage the problem of genocide, our children will never be safe. They will live in a world threatened by instability and strife. They will live in a nation threatened by moral bankruptcy. The holocaust and Darfur matter to our children, because they need to know that we are all one. They need the courage and the moral values necessary to confront problems like genocide. If our children can develop and sustain that courage, they can do more than any generation who has come before.
That's why I want my daughter to visit the Museum. But I will have to make our travel plans later. Right now it's time for the game.
