this is a piece that i appended to an previous post on the holocaust and read for a poetry and music performance night for the campus chapter of amnesty international:

world war two seems like so long ago, and the deliberate killing of six million ordinary men and women and children seems like it belongs on the shelf hidden between the history books. why are we so in awe of the holocaust? do we need the deaths of millions to make the tragic loss of life sacred and meaningful?
from the perspective of the ordinary jew who experienced it, the holocaust was not about six millions. when you are forcibly separated from your loving wife of twenty years, your perfect little son with his yamulke and prayer shawl, your beautiful daughter with her cascade of curls and deep brown eyes, for you, the world has ended. each holocaust occurs in this manner, one child, one woman, one man, one family at a time.

and so we live in a world of never-ending holocausts. bony children sit with swollen bellies as the life seeps out of them, starving when they should be playing, dancing and laughing, full of vitality; daughters are sold into the brutal world of sexual slavery, little boys sweat and toil their childhood away in brickyards, women stitch their lives into a pair of shoes that could buy their families food and freedom if only they could receive full market value of the namebrand footwear, men and women languish behind bars because they dared to voice their righteous indignation at the destruction of their lands and cultural heritage and freedoms. from the perspective of each of these ordinary people, they are suffering as the victims of the nazis suffered. and how does one quantify, how does one measure human suffering?

i cannot stand by and watch my brothers and sisters throughout the world perish. i feel helpless, but i cannot stay idle. gandhi once said that “whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.” perhaps i cannot stop the global sex trade. perhaps i cannot hold back the tides of globalization that enslave hundreds of millions around the world. perhaps i cannot throw open the doors of all of the prisons that hold the innocent captive.

but perhaps i can help free one young girl from the brothels to rebuild and to live a life of pride and freedom. perhaps i can make choices that will result in a living wage for a few families on the brink of starvation. perhaps i can help one west african journalist see the light of day and the tear-streaked, smiling faces of his wife and little ones. perhaps i can prevent a holocaust::