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"To every man is given the key to the gates of heaven. The same key opens the gates of hell."
I recently rented and watched a movie called Beyond the Gates. Admittedly, I am a little behind on new releases, so forgive me if this is old news to you.
It doesn't take much of a movie for me to be entertained, but this was much more than just mindless entertainment. If you have any conscious whatsoever, this movie makes you question a lot of things. It was definitely one of the best movies I have ever seen.
At the end, I found myself wondering "How does this happen? How can I be so oblivious to the goings on in the world? I was one of the binge drinkers of the General's previous post while this stuff occurring!" My wife looked at me and exclaimed, "we were in college when this happened!" ...yes, unfortunately we were.
Now, I had heard of Rwanda before, but I never took the time to fully comprehend what had taken place. This film opened my eyes, in a fantastically disturbing way, to what truly went down. From how evil humans can be to one another, to the sad effects of a broken government system (theirs, ours, and others), and to the horrific decisions that people had to make.
I strongly encourage everyone to watch this movie. In addition to the movie's website, PBS Frontline has a great site for information regarding the events.
3 comments:
I haven't seen this film, Sarge. Thanks for the suggestion. I too know little about the atrocities that happened in Rwanda...just that something bad happened. It's so easy, in America, to be insulated from the horrors that happen routinely around the world, not to mention in our own country. Although I realize most people have families and more immediate concerns that take up most of their mental time and energy, I think it's films like this that bring home the fact that people like myself, without those preoccupations, could be doing a whole lot more.
My suspicion is that whenever I'm overcome with anxiety, which is usually coupled with self-absorption, what I'm really feeling is my own decadence and sloth in the face of how little I know I could be doing for others.
Oh the irony. I just heard of this: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080102/ts_nm/kenya_election_dc
Read about it in the NY Times this morning. Very sad.
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