I just finished reading a book called Night by Elie Wiesel. This book is the author's account of his time spent being moved from one concentration camp to another in the 1940's. I had to several times remind myself this was not just a story book but these horrific things really happened....It's really very hard to imagine that even today things like this still do happen. I would like to add a few quotes from the author's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speach. I think his words basically sum it all up and I myself felt moved, challanged, encouraged, inspired by his words:

"...And that is why I swore to never be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the opressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jepardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the centre of the universe....There is so much injustice and suffering crying out for our attention: victims of hunger, of racism and political persecution. Human rights are being violated in every continent. More people are opressed then free. How can one not be sensitive to their plight? Human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere...There is so much to be done, there is so much that can be done. One person - a Raoul Wallenberg, an Albert Schweitzer, a Martin Luther King Jr. - One person of integrity can make a difference, a difference of life and death. As long as one dissident is in prison, our fredom will not be true. As long as one child is hungry, our life will be filled with anguish and shame. What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that we are not forgetting them, that when their voices are stifled, we shall lend them ours, that while their freedom depends on ours, the quality of our freedom, depends on theirs...Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us so desperatley."

This was deffinatley not my attempt to be all preachy or get up on a soap box, simply letting you know that I was moved by these words. I am not sure what I - or any of us for that matter - can do to make a difference but my perspective has been shifted. I guess I never before figured that their problem was my problem.....I mean come on I live in Canada - land of the free right? Well anyway it makes me think thats all and that is all I was hoping it would do for you - make you think.