Must See-Go rent Hotel Rwanda!

I've just finished watching this movie and I really have to say I think everyone should see this.

Just as some background: This is a movie about a group of people caught in the violence at the beginning of the genocide in Rwanda.

This movie is so important because it puts a face to the numbers and it is brutally honest about western views towards Africans. Extend that and it highlights just how little concern for people around the world who are not like us. Genocide and ethnic cleansing are as common place now as they have ever been. Isn't that such a sad statement about us as humans!

Genetically we are not so very different. Behaviorly we are not so very different. Even physically we are not so very different. Most people on Earth are born with 2 eyes, 2 ears, 2 arms, 2 legs. We all eat, sleep, and poop. We all have the capacity to love and be loved as much as we have the capacity to hate and seek revenge. The differences are essentially superficial yet we give them so much value.

Nearly 1 million people were killed in Rwanda. Nearly half a million have been killed in Sudan so far. By some estimates say more than 655,000 Iraqis have died in the past few years with the numbers rising as more than 1000 attacks occur daily around the country. As of last year more than 160,000 people have died in Chechnya. Anywhere from 100,000-260,000 people died in Bosnia. (Statistics on many more countries around the world both past and present can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_toll#Genocide_and_democide .)

So many dead, but what do a bunch of numbers really mean. Watch Hotel Rwanda and read this article at National Geographic http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0601/feature2/index.html and you will begin to see some of the human faces behind the numbers.

Honestly, I have no idea how to help or stop such violence around the world. All I can do is try to remind myself and my family that we are all so very much alike. And that God made us individuals with slight superficial differences so that we could celebrate our diversity and take pleasure in them. Imagine a garden filled with only one kind of flower in one color only. Now imagine that same garden filled with the variety and uniqueness of a 100 different kinds of flowers in a rainbow of colors. Where would you rather to spend a day?

Please pass these recommendations on to everyone you know so that maybe, just maybe we can all learn to be a bit more accepting of and more open to the variety that God has blessed us with.