WHY STUDY GENOCIDE? HERE’S WHY
Susan Smylie and Laura McCarthy
San Antonio Express
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Sept 3 2009
The Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission came into effect this week,
thanks to action taken by the Legislature last spring. Texans should
be proud our state is taking a leadership role in this area.
The commission will provide advice and assistance to educators from
primary schools through universities regarding implementation of
Holocaust and genocide courses of study and awareness programs.
The commission also will identify resources educators may use and
will help connect people with great knowledge or experiences of
genocide with those who wish to learn more. Its scope goes beyond
public schools and will be a resource to all educators.
Why study genocide? Some say it "just happens." While the planning
that went into the Holocaust is obvious, other such mass murders are
often viewed as cultural problems among people who "have always been
fighting each other."
Our study shows genocide is carefully planned by perpetrators who
are fueled by a desire for power. Thus, it is preventable. Every 20th
century genocide has had warnings that were ignored.
Believing humans really will carry out such horrors on other humans
is hard to grasp, but we have seen it happen — in Armenia, Germany,
Cambodia, Rwanda and now, in the first genocide of the 21st century,
Darfur, Sudan.
Understanding that genocide is preventable can empower us to take
action.
Local retired teacher Kathy Kardon and teachers at Bush Middle
School set a great example of how genocide education can be used to
tie past atrocities to current action. They used the NEISD Holocaust
curriculum to start a discussion about genocide that led to students
raising some $6,000 for Darfur refugee relief.
At its outset, the commission should survey how much genocide education
is happening in Texas and develop relationships with inspired educators
in the process. That will enable the commission to make recommendations
and provide resources to all Texas educators. With tools and resources,
communities across Texas will be better prepared to learn about
genocide, and empowered to use that knowledge to take action.
The commission is crucial to teaching children that no one is a lesser
person, and to reawakening in adults lessons of the past and how they
connect to the future. It isn’t enough to say that something bad
happened to a group of people in the past. By being aware of early
warning signs, we can avert future tragedies.
We hope you who are reading this will join us in supporting the Texas
Holocaust and Genocide Commission’s work.
Susan Smylie of San Antonio and Laura McCarthy of Dallas are 2009
Genocide Intervention Network Carl Wilkens Fellows.