Ring ring -- it's your conscience calling
07:33, 13 February 2008
.. Posted in Personal.. Link
COMMENTARY: When you wonder why some important someone back in the days of slavery or Jim Crow in the USA didn't speak out against the injustice, you get the answer, "Well, he didn't really support what was happening, but, you know, taking a stand wouldn't really have made a difference, because that's just how things were, and saying something would have just caused problems." When you see photos of famous people back in the 1930s shaking hands with Hitler and saying the Nazis weren't so bad, and wonder how it could be, you hear, "Well, they didn't know how bad he was back then, and taking a stand would have caused too many problems for their careers." When big Internet companies hand over user data to oppressive governments and democracy activists are arrested as a result, you hear, "Well, the company had no choice; it has to help the government in order to work there, even if it doesn't like what's happened, and if it didn't do business there, someone else would. Taking a stand wouldn't really make a difference."
Filmmaker Steven Spielberg has just quit as artistic advisor to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, because China has not done enough to help end the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. Spielberg said, "I find that my conscience will not allow me to continue business as usual. At this point, my time and energy must be spent not on Olympic ceremonies, but on doing all I can to help bring an end to the unspeakable crimes against humanity that continue to be committed in Darfur. Sudan's government bears the bulk of the responsibility for these ongoing crimes but the international community, and particularly China, should be doing more."
Mr. Spielberg is going to sleep very well this week. I just wonder how other people do. Here's to the people brave enough to do the right thing.
