i almost held it together

as long as i'm not in an emotionally fragile state to begin with, i don't generally cry at movies and television because even though they echo what might happen in real life they are just characters after all. there are the times that you watch documentaries and stories based on real life...and that's what i did this afternoon.

i was going to watch hotel rwanda yesterday, but decided to go with more light hearted films. i did watch it this afternoon and i made it all the way through, but broke into tears at the end of it. the story is so horrifying because its true and i knew if i started to get upset half way through i wouldn't be able to finish it, but i wanted to.

in august 2005 i watched the documentary shake hands with the devil and blogged the following, which i'm going to post again here. no more television or movies for me today as everything else will seem trite:

last night i watched the "shake hands with the devil" documentary about general romeo dallaire and thought back to the day at met him (and justin trudeau!) at my last conU homecoming. it still amazes me how human beings can be so inhuman. and i'm not just talking about the practitioners of genocide...i'm talking about the western world that did absolutely nothing to help (except for a few struggling peacekeepers and one determined and morally grounded canadian). after they had realised what *had* happened, no one bothered to be honest about the situation or really apologise. dallaire took so much of what happened on his own shoulders and suffered incredibly in terms of the emotional impact his experiences had on him. i only wish i could have as much guts and conviction as he does, because like many of you i'm worried that i'm all talk and no action.

maybe its just because i now have nieces and nephews and realise that yes, indeed, the world will go on once i've gone, but we've got to take care of this world. we really have to take more of a role to teach social responsibility to *everyone* (not just the youngsters) because the reality is, we cannot keep taking the stance that we can use up all we want in this world and just wait for someone to come up with a grand solution. the grand solution is individuals taking control, contributin, being aware of what's going on...the motto, if you will, of veteran's day is "never again"...i can't help but think it everytime i see such attrocities and inhuman behaviour, our planet slowly disintegrating, or life not being seen for the precious and wonderful thing it is.