Heroes

Rusesabagina! 

	Alyssa Cwanger, Post-Gazette Paul Rusesabagina, who saved 1,200 people from genocide in Rwanda a decade ago, discusses the conflict in Sudan in a talk last night.

Last night, along with about 2400 people to standing room capacity
only, I went to hear and see Paul Rusesabagina (the man whom Don
Cheadle
played in the movie ‘Hotel Rwanda’).  He came to speak for free at
the
Soldiers and Sailors Auditorium in Oakland.  It was captivating
and
moving.  To hear him speak of his experience in Rwanda during the
time
of the genocide is intense.  Few of us actually live through war
though
many of us (minorities and immigrants in this country) have lived
through some sort of civil/local unrest in the communities we live in
here or in our homelands (or have family who have done so).  It
was amazing to hear and see a modern day hero!

I think the most important reminder that I took away from it was
that I must be myself.  In matters of saving the world/heroism, people
didn’t make huge overhauls of themselves; they merely remained true to
their conscious and made simple decisions (like Rusesabagina’s not to
leave the hotel) that set into motion a series of other events which in
and of themselves may not have seemed important but as a whole produced
intensely inspirational stories.

 

It was good to see a fellow African doing good and being acclaimed
for it.  And not just doing good in the permissible areas of music,
dance or art.  So much of Africa is still found in the dusky recesses
of most people’s minds and when it is highlighted, it’s often in the
context of ungoodness; seeing a packed auditorium of young people
curious to hear him speak helped alleviate some of my cynicism about
the “motherland”.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05335/615284.stm

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