On Thursday, October 5, I had the chance to see Paul Rusesabagina (the inspiration for the movie Hotel Rwanda) speak at Georgia Tech. Having both seen Hotel Rwanda and read his autobiography, An Oridnary Man, I jumped at the opportunity to hear one of my heroes speak.Most of his speach was a condensed version of his book. But at the end of his speech, he said something that stuck with me. He said that his book and his speech were his message, his insight into the failure of humanity in all regards to Rwanda. The audience, being college students and the future leaders of the world, were his messengers. It is up to us, the rising generation, to step up to the plate and carry out the promise Never Again.
"A sad truth of human nature is that it is hard to care for people when they are abstractions, hard to care when it is not you or somebody close to you. Unless the world community can stop finding ways to dither in the face of this monstrous threat to humanity those words Never Again will persist in being one of the most abused phrases in the English language and one of the greatest lies of our time." - Paul Rusesabagina, An Ordinary Man
1 comment:
How cool you get to hear him speak! Mind you, I haven't seen the film but to hear such a message must have been spiritually filling.
Be good Drew, as one of our generation's future leaders... I worry.
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