"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing" Edmund Burke
I recently watched "Schindler's List" for the first time. I had to remind myself while watching it, that it is not just a movie, the events depicted, and thousands more like them, actually occurred. I watched it play out on the screen and wondered, how could something so atrocious have been allowed to happen? How could people be so profoundly immoral that they inflict such horror onto other people. Beyond wondering about the evil people, I wonder how could moral people stand to the side and allow such heinous acts to take place and then escalate. It was profoundly difficult to watch the portrayal of these events. However, even in the darkness of such brutality, there are beacons of light working to displace it. In the event of the holocaust, not all people stepped aside and let it happen; some made a stand. This movie depicts how the selfless acts of one man changed the tide for thousands. He made a choice to not turn away, as he could have, but instead held his ground and resisted the evil. He stood as a bastion of protection for the people in his factory, and instead of continuing its advance, the evil was forced to halt.
The entire movie was brilliantly moving. A scene near the end spoke to me most intensely. It was where Oskar starts to see his possessions as people that he could have saved. "Why did I keep the car, that's ten people". He lamented that if he had made more money he could have saved more people. If he had wasted less money on things, he could have saved more people. This man singlehandedly saved the lives of hundreds of people within his sphere of influence. He sacrificed his own comfort and safety to the utmost to help others, and yet, at the end, he wished he go back and do more.
I watched Liam Neeson's character crumble to the ground in grief over thoughts of what more he could have done, and I wondered if that could be me someday. I wonder if later in my life, as I look back at the choices I have made, the things I have done, the things I neglected to do, will I regret not doing more. There are people all around the world that are dying preventable deaths. People are are suffering under the weight of injustices such as slavery, extreme poverty, and violence. Because of our modern era, they are within my sphere of influence, it IS within my power to do something to relieve their suffering. Do I really wrestle with the question of where to balance my resources between what I do for myself and my family and what I do for others? Or do I just accept things as they are given to me and go with the flow of life?
The entire movie was brilliantly moving. A scene near the end spoke to me most intensely. It was where Oskar starts to see his possessions as people that he could have saved. "Why did I keep the car, that's ten people". He lamented that if he had made more money he could have saved more people. If he had wasted less money on things, he could have saved more people. This man singlehandedly saved the lives of hundreds of people within his sphere of influence. He sacrificed his own comfort and safety to the utmost to help others, and yet, at the end, he wished he go back and do more.
I watched Liam Neeson's character crumble to the ground in grief over thoughts of what more he could have done, and I wondered if that could be me someday. I wonder if later in my life, as I look back at the choices I have made, the things I have done, the things I neglected to do, will I regret not doing more. There are people all around the world that are dying preventable deaths. People are are suffering under the weight of injustices such as slavery, extreme poverty, and violence. Because of our modern era, they are within my sphere of influence, it IS within my power to do something to relieve their suffering. Do I really wrestle with the question of where to balance my resources between what I do for myself and my family and what I do for others? Or do I just accept things as they are given to me and go with the flow of life?
I look at past evils like the Holocaust, and I am aghast that it was allowed to happen. I find the fault not just in the people who committed the crimes, but of the thousands of people who stood by and watched as it happened. The modern slave trade is just one of the evils of our time. We have the choice now to turn our eyes and allow it to happen, or take up arms and join in the battle against this evil. Someday, down the road, when my Grandchildren are learning about the modern day slave trade as I have learned about the holocaust and other past evils, I don't want them to think that I stood by and watched and let it be. I want them to know I stood against injustice. Not just that I did not commit injustice, but that I fought it in every sphere of my influence.
"The victims of injustice in our world do not need our spasms of passion, they need our long obedience in the same direction."--Gary Haugen
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