G is for Genocide

This is probably the most serious topic I will ever write about. Ever. I much rather sit here and ramble about my usual random silly things, but today is not the day for that (I promise H is for something happier). I am still at a point in my life where I can look at the world and see the potential for goodness as long as people are educated about the horrible things that have happened in the past, and vow never to let them happen again in the future. While it is not my job to educate you (whoever you all are out there reading this), it is what is on my mind today and so I am going to ramble a bit about it.

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, the day that serves to acknowledge the 12 million lives taken during the Holocaust. Six million Jews died (wiping out half of the Jewish population), as well as 5-6 million others who did not fit in with the Nazi vision. The Jews were killed simply because of the family they were born into. It is unbelievable to think of how many people either stood by and said nothing, or were even convinced that taking human life could somehow magically fix their own problems. It is also astounding to me how recent of an event this was. There are still survivors of the Holocaust who are alive today, who bore witness to such intense tragedy.

While we usually think of the Holocaust when we think of genocide, there have unfortunately been many other notable ones throughout history as well, even in more recent history. The Rwandan genocide occurred in 1994, resulting in 500,000 to 1,000,000 deaths over the course of about 100 days. I was alive through the whole thing, and yet unaware of it for years to come. In the 2000s, an estimated 500,000 died during the genocide in Darfur (Sudan).

Nothing truly awful in my life has happened yet, so instead of my own pain, I feel the pain of others. I feel the burden of these events. I think about them and feel the weight of them. I want to forget, so I am writing them into the blogosphere to set them free from my mind. I know I will never truly forget, however, and know this is the way it needs to be. We need to remember, no matter how difficult it is.