Dedicated to those who do nothing... those who are indifferent...

[Sapphire Blue]

The Perils of Indifference by Elie Wiesel

Listen to the Speech @ http://easylink.playstream.com/historyplace/thp-wiesel.rm

Read the Speech @ http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/wiesel.htm

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

1. They will never even see this thread.

[IndyOp]

3. Some will if you recommend it for Greatest page --

Now is an excellent time to listen to Wiesel.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

4. Done

:toast:

[Tuesday_Morning]

2. Very moving - thanks.

From Wiesel's speech:


In a way, to be indifferent to that suffering is what makes the human being inhuman. Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred. Anger can at times be creative. One writes a great poem, a great symphony, one does something special for the sake of humanity because one is angry at the injustice that one witnesses. But indifference is never creative. Even hatred at times may elicit a response. You fight it. You denounce it. You disarm it. Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response.

Indifference is not a beginning, it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor -- never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten. The political prisoner in his cell, the hungry children, the homeless refugees -- not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope is to exile them from human memory. And in denying their humanity we betray our own.

Indifference, then, is not only a sin, it is a punishment. And this is one of the most important lessons of this outgoing century's wide-ranging experiments in good and evil.

[IndyOp]

5. Kicked and Recommended --

Now is the right time to listen to Weisel -- we *all* need to be caring and working now, right now!

:kick:

[Sapphire Blue]

9. ...

I listen to this speech every day... more frequently when feeling discouraged. Elie Wiesel is powerfully inspiring.

[Sapphire Blue]

13. ...

Steadily replaying it today.

[PDJane]

6. Thank you..............

[Deja Q]

7. Indifference

Indifference is when people have no regard for others.

What causes it? Selfishness or the pursuit of personal desire.

Many people like to hurt others because they desire it.

As with many other things, no society can squelch symptoms and think the problem is resolved. And until people realize that little truism, expect nothing to change.

Show me compassion and I'll enlist.

Show me indifference and pain, and I'll go away and tell you to have fun without me and to find someone else to pick on.


And I've had more than enough pain from more than enough people over the course of my paltry 33 years.

I am indifferent to the future. Because those in power choose personal desire over helping their fellow countrymen with jobs; we're not all indolent as they claim us to be. And the rewards for intellect, eagarness, and loyalty continue to be ignored by the management while the truly indolent whine and complain and get not just a silver spoon but a whole fuckin' silver tea service. That's a reality whereever you are at.

Besides, what can I do?

And why should I care about a society that sees me a reject for any sheer number of reasons, none of which have any validity? I've spoken my mind on the internet. And that's all I can do.

Or is it that "in times of war, the innocent die too" - is that it?

[Sequoia]

8. Thanks. Great website.

[OneBlueSky]

10. totally unrelated, but a funny story . . .

years ago when I was working as a cabinetmaker near Boston, we often kept the shop radio tuned to various college stations in the area . . . on one particular day, we were tuned in to the station at Emerson, a college that specializes in communications . . . the announcer, a female student, had occasion to mention something about Elie Weisel . . . and both of us in the shop at the time just about rolled over laughing when she said "Eli Weasel" -- Eli, as in Eli Manning, and Weasel, as in the animal . . . bet she never heard the end of it from fellow students and professors . . . :)

[Amonester]

11. Each Small Candle

Not the torturer will scare me
Nor the body's final fall
Nor the barrels of death's rifles
Nor the shadows on the wall
Nor the night when to the ground
The last dim star of pain, is hurled
But the blind indifference
Of a merciless, unfeeling world
(-Unknown source: perhaps anonymous victim of torture)

Lying in the burned out shell
Of some Albanian farm
An old Babushka
Holds a crying baby in her arms
A soldier from the other side
A man of heart and pride
Breaks ranks, lays down his rifle
To kneel by her side

He gives her water
Binds her wounds
And calms the crying child
A touch gives absolution then
Across the great divide
He picks his way back through the broken
China of her life
And there at the curb
The samaritan Serb turns and waves ... goodbye

And each small candle
Lights a corner of the dark
Each small candle
Lights a corner of the dark
Each small candle lights a corner of the dark
When the wheel of pain stops turning
And the branding iron stops burning
When the children can be children
When the desperados weaken
When the tide rolls into greet them
And the natural law of science
Greets the humble and the mighty
And the billion candles burning
Lights the dark side of every human mind

Each small candle
Each small candle
Each small candles lights the dark side of every human mind

And each small candle
Lights a corner of the dark
-Roger Waters (Ex-Pink Floyd co-founder & now solo).

[nofurylike]

44. "But the blind indifference Of a merciless, unfeeling world" - thank you

for this post, Amonester!

may they hear.


peace

[ClayZ]

12. Thank You for posting this!

:kick:


The Killers
The Victims
The Bystanders

[Sapphire Blue]

14. Indifference...

From The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity: http://www.eliewieselfoundation.org/AboutUs/index.html

[wadestock]

15. How about the perils of being brainwashed by Limbaugh?

Not until the party takes him on directly will we have any hope.
He is the master of deception.
He has effectively demonized the liberals....amoung the average, frustrated, overworked, underpaid, willing to point the blame, etc, etc....American.
It's a beautiful formula that feeds directly into the pockets of the exploitative elitests.

[Sapphire Blue]

16. "Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred."

From Elie Wiesel's speech...

In a way, to be indifferent to that suffering is what makes the human being inhuman. Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred. Anger can at times be creative. One writes a great poem, a great symphony, one does something special for the sake of humanity because one is angry at the injustice that one witnesses. But indifference is never creative. Even hatred at times may elicit a response. You fight it. You denounce it. You disarm it. Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response.

Indifference is not a beginning, it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor -- never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten. The political prisoner in his cell, the hungry children, the homeless refugees -- not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope is to exile them from human memory. And in denying their humanity we betray our own.

Indifference, then, is not only a sin, it is a punishment. And this is one of the most important lessons of this outgoing century's wide-ranging experiments in good and evil.

http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/wiesel.htm

[wadestock]

18. Write a PHD thesis about it....

Meanwhile....
Limbaugh is destroying the democratic party.
Effectively.
The American public is frustrated, overworked, and under a mass psychosis since 911.
The reason people in this country drive their cars like they're almost willing to commit suicide ....that over 50% of families are on the rocks....etc...etc...might give you a tiny little indication that there is some real frustration....some hatred ready to be exploited....

That's how Hitler did it.

[Sapphire Blue]

19. Have you listened to Elie Wiesel's speech?

<Edited to add: He knows something about Hitler & the nazis.>

[wadestock]

21. Are you tuned into the destruction of America

as we know it...
circa 2005?

Indifference is the lowest form of susceptibility.
Then suddenly the criteria for decision comes in.

What do you suppose happens at that point.
What makes the average Joe think it's cool to dis liberals?

LIMBAUGH

[Sapphire Blue]

23. Perhaps you should start a LIMBAUGH thread & present your theories there.

[nofurylike]

28. that is all the more reason why those who DO get it must NOT be

indifferent.


peace

[JVS]

36. meh

[Sapphire Blue]

38. So what is that supposed to mean?

[JVS]

39. "meh" is an expression of indifference

;-)

[Sapphire Blue]

40. By replying "meh" in response to post #16, what is it you're saying??

[JVS]

41. nothing

[Sapphire Blue]

43. I don't get it... why bother to reply if you're saying "nothing"?

Did you listen to Elie Wiesel's speech? It is powerfully inspirational... makes it difficult to do nothing, to be indifferent, to be a bystander... don't you think?

[JVS]

45. Because it's late and I can't sleep

I read the excerpt, I don't have sound. As far as his argument is concerned, I'm not completely convinced. It is essentially a "with us or against us" argument. I don't care for that. The other question that springs to mind is that even if one is not indifferent, how does that direct a person to appropriate action. Is corrective action even possible? We might like to think that we could do something to stop shrub, but it really appears that we're stuck with him until 2009. Certainly action can be taken on some issues, but many things just seem like things we have to deal with.

[Sapphire Blue]

47. You can read the speech @

http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/wiesel.htm

I would encourage you to read it... it seems like you could use the inspiration.

[nofurylike]

48. please read the whole speech. do you not think that germans were

responsible?


peace

[ddeclue]

17. Dante's Inferno / Robert Kennedy...

Robert Kennedy was fond of a quote from Dante's Inferno which said "the lowest places in hell are reserved for those who stand by and do nothing in times of great moral crisis".


Doug D.
Orlando, FL

[ismnotwasm]

20. Thank you

I listened. After a while I listened with my eyes closed to catch every word.

[Sapphire Blue]

22. The Nobel Acceptance Speech - by Elie Wiesel in Oslo on December 10, 1986

An excerpt...

And then I explain to him how naïve we were, that the world did know and remained silent. And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe.

<snip>

As long as one dissident is in prison, our freedom will not be true. As long as one child is hungry, our life will be filled with anguish and shame. What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that we are not forgetting them, that when their voices are stifled we shall lend them ours, that while their freedom depends on ours, the quality of our freedom depends on theirs.

This is what I say to the young Jewish boy wondering what I have done with his years. It is in his name that I speak to you and that I express to you my deepest gratitude as one who has emerged from the Kingdom of Night. We know that every moment is a moment of grace, every hour an offering; not to share them would mean to betray them.

Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately.

http://www.eliewieselfoundation.org/ElieWiesel/speech.html

[bonito]

24. Peace

Thanks.

[Sapphire Blue]

26. "Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who...

... need us desperately." - Elie Wiesel

[Sapphire Blue]

50. ***** kick *****

[Sapphire Blue]

25. kick

[nofurylike]

27. yes!! yes yes yes!! thank you Sapphire Blue! thank you for ALL you do!!

"Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who...
... need us desperately." - Elie Wiesel

keep on waking us, please keep on waking us!!


peace and solidarity, always!

[nofurylike]

29. k&r. so many who would be altered by hearing this. peace! eom

[nofurylike]

30. those who are indifferent: you don't care? your indifference is an action.

you must care enough that you *decide* to throw others to the tyrants, rather than take simple steps for their rescue.

shocks me here, every time.
82thousand DUers.


wake. act. please.

[Sapphire Blue]

33. "... the killers, the victims, and the bystanders."

In the place that I come from, society was composed of three simple categories: the killers, the victims, and the bystanders. During the darkest of times, inside the ghettoes and death camps -- and I'm glad that Mrs. Clinton mentioned that we are now commemorating that event, that period, that we are now in the Days of Remembrance -- but then, we felt abandoned, forgotten. All of us did." - Elie Wiesel

http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/wiesel.htm

Too many bystanders today. We need to care. We need to act.

I hope Elie Wiesel's powerful speech is being heard today.

[nofurylike]

34. "but then, we felt abandoned, forgotten..." Elie Wiesel. eom

[Sapphire Blue]

37. I wonder how many feel abandoned & forgotten today?

[nofurylike]

42. countless! countless, Sapphire Blue!! and growing fast, the number!!

so little it would take from each of us to make the difference, if all of us, or even most of us, would act!!

so many won't lift a finger

it eats away at me

thank you so much for the blessing of that powerful and inspirational speech.
may they hear! o goddess, please may they hear!!

and act!


peace and solidarity, always!

[nofurylike]

31. kick

[nofurylike]

32. kick so others might get to hear this powerfully moving speech. eom

[nofurylike]

35. kick! may all hear and be moved... ! eom

[nofurylike]

46. kick

[Sapphire Blue]

49. Some who weren't indifferent...

Civil disobedience on the steps of the Canon Bldg: rtsp://real.faithandvalues.com/streaming/sojourners/051214_moralbudget.rm

Testimony & photos of those arrested: http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=action.display_c&item=051214_arrests_testimony

The real Christmas scandal: http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=sojomail.display&issue=051215#4