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April 25 2014
Walk against genocide
April 25, 2014 : Updated: April 25, 2014 4:03pm
SAN ANTONIO -- In 2011, the Texas Legislature proclaimed April as
Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month. On Sunday, the San Antonio
Coalition Against Genocide will sponsor the 3rd annual Walk Against
Genocide from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Campus of the San Antonio Jewish
Community, 12500 NW Military Highway.
San Antonians are invited to come hear a witness to the 1994 genocide
in Rwanda, learn about conflict resolution and peace building, listen
to the music of Dana Clark and Mar Gutierrez, and, of course, walk in
solidarity with genocide victims and demonstrate that San Antonio
cares.
But does San Antonio care and why? The History Place website estimates
that in the last hundred years, genocide -- the intentional destruction
of a whole class of people -- claimed the lives of more than 17 million
people in seven events, from Armenia in 1915, through the Holocaust
during World War II, to Rwanda in 1994.
Most recently, genocide, claiming as many as 400,000 lives has
occurred in the Darfur region of Sudan. Violence against specific
religious or ethnic groups continues to this very day in places as far
flung as Myanmar, Syria and the Central African Republic.
Do we care? San Antonio is justly proud of its multicultural past and
present. But there are people in our community whose lives have been
scarred by the memory of friends and loved ones who suffered horrific
deaths, or who themselves witnessed, but survived, unspeakable
atrocities before coming to our city as refugees. They are our
neighbors.
A common thread running through many genocide events is that good
people and their governments turned a blind eye or stood by, taking
only the mildest of actions -- or acting too late -- against the
perpetrators.
Josef Stalin's forced starvation of 7 million people in Ukraine, Adolf
Hitler's murder of 6 million Jews, Pol Pot's 2 million victims of the
Cambodian killing fields, and Slobodan Milosevic and his henchmen's
slaughter of 200,000 Muslims in the former Yugoslavia are some of the
most well known.
Even today, despite being indicted as a war criminal by the
International Criminal Court, Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir remains
unrestrained in his campaigns of violence against native peoples,
including fellow Muslims, in Darfur and Sudan borderlands.
The San Antonio Coalition Against Genocide includes representatives
from the Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of San
Antonio, Interreligious Council of San Antonio, University
Presbyterian Church, Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio and
other residents of our community.
We are dedicated to promoting public awareness of ongoing genocide and
mass atrocities in the world and advocating for more effective efforts
by our own government to prevent this violence from continuing.
Please come walk with us and show that San Antonio truly cares.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/commentary/article/Walk-against-genocide-5430277.php
From: A. Papazian
April 25 2014
Walk against genocide
April 25, 2014 : Updated: April 25, 2014 4:03pm
SAN ANTONIO -- In 2011, the Texas Legislature proclaimed April as
Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month. On Sunday, the San Antonio
Coalition Against Genocide will sponsor the 3rd annual Walk Against
Genocide from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Campus of the San Antonio Jewish
Community, 12500 NW Military Highway.
San Antonians are invited to come hear a witness to the 1994 genocide
in Rwanda, learn about conflict resolution and peace building, listen
to the music of Dana Clark and Mar Gutierrez, and, of course, walk in
solidarity with genocide victims and demonstrate that San Antonio
cares.
But does San Antonio care and why? The History Place website estimates
that in the last hundred years, genocide -- the intentional destruction
of a whole class of people -- claimed the lives of more than 17 million
people in seven events, from Armenia in 1915, through the Holocaust
during World War II, to Rwanda in 1994.
Most recently, genocide, claiming as many as 400,000 lives has
occurred in the Darfur region of Sudan. Violence against specific
religious or ethnic groups continues to this very day in places as far
flung as Myanmar, Syria and the Central African Republic.
Do we care? San Antonio is justly proud of its multicultural past and
present. But there are people in our community whose lives have been
scarred by the memory of friends and loved ones who suffered horrific
deaths, or who themselves witnessed, but survived, unspeakable
atrocities before coming to our city as refugees. They are our
neighbors.
A common thread running through many genocide events is that good
people and their governments turned a blind eye or stood by, taking
only the mildest of actions -- or acting too late -- against the
perpetrators.
Josef Stalin's forced starvation of 7 million people in Ukraine, Adolf
Hitler's murder of 6 million Jews, Pol Pot's 2 million victims of the
Cambodian killing fields, and Slobodan Milosevic and his henchmen's
slaughter of 200,000 Muslims in the former Yugoslavia are some of the
most well known.
Even today, despite being indicted as a war criminal by the
International Criminal Court, Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir remains
unrestrained in his campaigns of violence against native peoples,
including fellow Muslims, in Darfur and Sudan borderlands.
The San Antonio Coalition Against Genocide includes representatives
from the Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of San
Antonio, Interreligious Council of San Antonio, University
Presbyterian Church, Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio and
other residents of our community.
We are dedicated to promoting public awareness of ongoing genocide and
mass atrocities in the world and advocating for more effective efforts
by our own government to prevent this violence from continuing.
Please come walk with us and show that San Antonio truly cares.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/commentary/article/Walk-against-genocide-5430277.php
From: A. Papazian