On December 10, 1986, Elie Wiesel delivered one of the influencal speeches in history.
The occasion was his acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize. Wiesel looked back to himself as a small boy entering the Holocaust and asked, “Can this be true? Who would allow such crimes to be committed? How could the world remain silent?”
The answer, of course, was that the world did know and did remain silent while six million human beings were systematically exterminated.
Today, right now, more than thirty million human beings live in slavery. Genocide is reality.
Cries of “I can’t breathe” and “Hands up” echo through our nation’s streets.
Somewhere a little boy wonders, “Can this be true? Who would allow such crimes to be committed? How could the world remain silent?”
I’m convicted by Elie Wiesel’s reply to that boy.
We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe.
One person of integrity can make a difference, a difference of life and death. As long as one dissident is in prison, our freedom will not be true. As long as one child is hungry, our lives 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.
I invite you to invest 18 minutes and listen to Mr. Wiesel’s speech.
I know you’re busy. That little boy was busy, too. He was playing when he was dragged into the ghetto, onto a cattle car, and into the kingdom of night.
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