Death is Not a Statistic

At this point, I'm willing to guess that you are asking the same question I did when I started learning about these events...

How in the world did this happen?

How is is possible that something like this could go on for 100 days - that approximately one million people could be killed in such a short time?

The answers to these questions are extremely complicated, and in many cases, there really aren't any answers; there are only more questions. That is the first thing I want to make clear: I don't pretend to have any solutions; I simply want to share my perspective and opinions.

Having said that, the thing about this whole situation that struck me the hardest was the lack of public awareness. The more time goes by, the more I realize just how self-absorbed we are in the United States. I will never forget how amazed I was when I did some traveling a couple of years ago and realized how important world news is in other countries... everywhere but here, it seems like. Unless it's something that directly affects OUR safety or OUR economy or OUR lives, it seldom makes the news.

I recently googled both "Rwandan Genocide" and "9-11 attacks" and the discrepancy in the amount of information available was staggering. "9-11 attacks" brought up 13,600,000 hits, while "Rwandan Genocide" brought up only 747,000. And yet 1 million people were killed in Rwanda, and a little under 3,000 on 9/11. I don't mean to belittle the tragedy that was September 11. I simply want to illustrate the extent to which we, as a nation, focus on ourselves and forget about the billions of other people on this planet.

How selfish and how sad! We as a nation have such potential to create change in our world, but we rarely take advantage of it. How can we stand by with our eyes on ourselves while, in a matter of days, one million innocent men, women and children are brutally murdered?

I realized one possible reason for this phenomenon after a recent visit to the Holocaust Museum in LA. In one of the exhibits, there was a quote by Joseph Stalin that I found both incredibly insightful and disturbing at the same time:


"One death is a tragedy, one million is a statistic."


As much as I would love to be able to say that I don't think this is true, I believe that it often is. One person's death - that of a family member or close friend, for example - will usually affect us much more profoundly than the more numerous deaths associated with war or genocide. We become disconnected with the truth that our fellow human beings are losing their lives and that children are losing parents, husbands are losing wives, and people are losing dear friends.

Death should never become a statistic.

This is why I found the book "Left to Tell" so profound. It connected me on a personal level to an event I would have normally looked at as another chapter in my history textbook. If you ever get a chance to check it out, I would highly recommend it.

I don't know about you, but I want to be the kind of person who actually gets off the couch and does something! There are so many ways to get involved, and absolutely no excuses to not do so!

I guess that's it for now on my part, but if these thoughts have raised questions in your own mind, or if you're simply interested in reading more about the Rwandan Genocide, check out the links under "For Further Reading" on the right side of this page. Hopefully those will get you started. "Left to Tell" is the personal account I mentioned earlier, while "Bystanders to Genocide" is a broader look at the worldwide lack of organization and effeciency that surrounded these events and what the US could (and probably should) have done better. There is also a link to the resolutions that were adopted by the UN at the Convention on Genocide on December 9, 1948.

Thanks again for reading and I look forward to hearing your thoughts!