Comments on: Truth and Reconciliation, Stories from the Diaspora http://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2009/10/29/truth-and-reconciliation-stories-from-the-diaspora/ Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:08:33 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Jessica E. Slavin http://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2009/10/29/truth-and-reconciliation-stories-from-the-diaspora/comment-page-1/#comment-26779 Jessica E. Slavin Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:03:30 +0000 http://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/?p=7694#comment-26779 You are so right. I could tell similar stories that I heard from refugees from virtually all regions of the globe. Sometimes when I hear or remember stories of violence and deprivation like the ones from Liberia, or Bosnia, or Russia, or Guatemala, or here in the United States, I start to lose hope for our species. But happily there also seems to be a universal human capacity to endure and even rise above such inhumanity, to insist on one's own humanity despite these experiences. I should post about those stories sometimes too. You are so right. I could tell similar stories that I heard from refugees from virtually all regions of the globe.

Sometimes when I hear or remember stories of violence and deprivation like the ones from Liberia, or Bosnia, or Russia, or Guatemala, or here in the United States, I start to lose hope for our species. But happily there also seems to be a universal human capacity to endure and even rise above such inhumanity, to insist on one’s own humanity despite these experiences. I should post about those stories sometimes too.

]]> By: David Papke http://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2009/10/29/truth-and-reconciliation-stories-from-the-diaspora/comment-page-1/#comment-26776 David Papke Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:39:48 +0000 http://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/?p=7694#comment-26776 The atrocities committed during the wars in Liberia are unbelievably horrible, and surely those Liberians who escaped should be allowed to remain permanently in the United States. What does our country stand for if we do not give them a home? However, we should also guard against thinking of human atrocities as uniquely African or as the doings of uncivilized Third Worlders. The worst atrocities committed during the last century of world history were the work of Germans in camps located in eastern Europe and of Japanese in China. The human species' ability and willingness to brutalize its own members is sadly neither region nor culture-specific. The atrocities committed during the wars in Liberia are unbelievably horrible, and surely those Liberians who escaped should be allowed to remain permanently in the United States. What does our country stand for if we do not give them a home? However, we should also guard against thinking of human atrocities as uniquely African or as the doings of uncivilized Third Worlders. The worst atrocities committed during the last century of world history were the work of Germans in camps located in eastern Europe and of Japanese in China. The human species’ ability and willingness to brutalize its own members is sadly neither region nor culture-specific.

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