{"id":74,"date":"2007-12-18T20:44:55","date_gmt":"2007-12-19T01:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onepeople-oneworld.org\/WordPress\/?p=74"},"modified":"2007-12-18T20:44:55","modified_gmt":"2007-12-19T01:44:55","slug":"but-does-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onepeople-oneworld.org\/WordPress\/2007\/12\/18\/but-does-it\/","title":{"rendered":"But does it?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I have often done, I am sharing a Steve Goodier piece here. But I disagree with him. Vehemently. Not in his basic principle, but in its particular application. I’ll be back after. :^)
\nCHANGING THE WORLD, ONE CLIP AT A TIME<\/p>\n

What can one person possibly do in this large world? How can one
\nperson or one small group accomplish anything significant to help
\nbring people together in understanding and peace? Listen to this true
\nand moving story .<\/p>\n

In 1998 deputy principal and football coach David Smith, at Whitwell
\nMiddle School<\/span> (Whitwell, Tennessee) attended a teacher training course
\nin nearby Chattanooga<\/span>. He came back and proposed that an after-school
\ncourse on the Holocaust<\/span> be offered at the school. This — in a school
\nwith hardly any ethnic and no Jewish students.<\/p>\n

English and social sciences teacher Sandra Roberts was selected to
\nteach, and in October, 1998 she held the first session. She began by
\nreading aloud from Anne Frank’s DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL and Elie
\nWiesel’s NIGHT. She read aloud because most of the students could not
\nafford to buy books.<\/p>\n

What gripped the eighth graders most as the course progressed was the
\nsheer number of Jews put to death by the Third Reich. Six million.
\nThey could hardly fathom such an immense figure.<\/p>\n

One day, Roberts was explaining to the class that some compassionate
\npeople in 1940s Europe<\/span> stood up for the Jews. After the Nazis invaded
\nNorway, many courageous Norwegians expressed solidarity with their
\nJewish fellow citizens by pinning ordinary paper clips<\/span> to their
\nlapels, as Jews were forced to wear a Star of David on theirs.<\/p>\n

Then someone had the idea to collect six million paper clips<\/span> to
\nrepresent the six million Holocaust victims. The idea caught on, and
\nthe students began bringing in paper clips<\/span> … from home, from aunts
\nand uncles and friends. They set up a Web page (you may visit
\nhttp:\/\/www.whitwell middleschool. org\/<\/a> to learn more). A few weeks
\nlater, the first letter arrived — then others. Many contained paper
\nclips<\/span>. By the end of the school year, the group had assembled 100,000
\nclips. But it occurred to the teachers that collecting six million
\npaper clips<\/span> at that rate would take a lifetime.<\/p>\n

The group’s activities spilled over from Roberts’ classroom. Soon it
\nwas called the Holocaust Project. Across the hall, students created a
\nconcentration camp simulation with paper cutouts of themselves pasted
\non the wall. Chicken wire stretched across the wall to represent
\nelectrified fences. Wire mesh was hung with shoes to represent the
\nmillions of shoes the victims left behind when they were marched to
\ndeath chambers. And they reenacted the “walk” to give students at
\nleast an inkling of what people must have felt when Nazi guards
\nmarched them off to camps.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the paper clip<\/span> counting continued. Students gathered for
\ntheir Wednesday meeting, each wearing the group’s polo shirt<\/span>
\nemblazoned: “Changing the World, One Clip at a Time.” All sorts of
\nclips arrived — silver and bronze colored clips, colorful plastic-
\ncoated clips, small clips, large clips, round clips, triangular clips
\nand even clips fashioned from wood. The students filed all the letters
\nthey received in ring binders.<\/p>\n

They obtained an authentic German railroad car from the 1940s, one
\nthat may have actually transported victims to camps. The car was to be
\nturned into a museum to house all the paper clips<\/span> (tens of millions
\nhave already arrived), as well as to display the many letters received
\nfrom around the world.<\/p>\n

When the project is finally completed, for generations of Whitwell
\neighth graders, a paper clip<\/span> will never again be just a paper clip<\/span>.
\nInstead, it will carry a message of perseverance, empathy,
\ntolerance and understanding. One student put it like this: “Now, when
\nI see someone, I think before I speak, I think before I act and I
\nthink before I judge.”<\/p>\n

Can one person, or one small group, truly do anything to help bring
\nhumanity together in understanding and peace? Just ask the students at
\nWhitwell and all of those around the world who are helping them to
\ncollect paper clips<\/span>!<\/p>\n

— Steve Goodier<\/p>\n

And here, is where I’m going to disagree. It is wonderful that we care about those six MILLION Jews taken by the holocaust. But who is speaking for the children of Darfur? Of the Sudan. Of Somalia? It isn’t over, Steve. It has barely begun. And THAT is what we should be thinking about. Not what was, but what WILL be, if WE, US, HERE, NOW, do not stop it. That is the task we face, that evil has hidden its face behind a burkqa does not make it any the less evil. Will the world meet this challenge? Or will it hide its face as it did while Hitler tried to kill europe? My guess? We have no more civil conscience now than we did then. We will pretend evil is just another way, until it gets in our way. And, pray then, we have the strength to defeat it. And I am defining evil simply as that which will not allow another a differing opinion. Do you doubt this is possible? Then welcome to your future. :^) gene<\/p>\n

If today brings even one choice your way
\nchoose to be a bringer of the light :^) gene<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I have often done, I am sharing a Steve Goodier piece here. But I disagree with him. Vehemently. Not in his basic principle, but in its particular application. I’ll be back after. :^) CHANGING THE WORLD, ONE CLIP AT A TIME What can one person possibly do in this large world? How can one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onepeople-oneworld.org\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onepeople-oneworld.org\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onepeople-oneworld.org\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onepeople-oneworld.org\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onepeople-oneworld.org\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onepeople-oneworld.org\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onepeople-oneworld.org\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onepeople-oneworld.org\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onepeople-oneworld.org\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}