Armenian Genocide Response

I consider myself to be pretty competant when it comes to history. I also have a lot of interest in human rights. Therefore one would think I would have more knowledge about the Armenian genocide. However prior to this class I had only read one book on the topic. I wonder why this is not talked about in schools like the Holocaust is. One reason that I can see that it is not talked about in the United States is the lack on our country's involvement. We like to talk about how we helped to end World War Two and the Holocaust. However we did not do anything about the Armenian genocide. Therefore it seems like our government would not want to teach it in school because our lack of involvement would have to come up. In this way the genocide reminds me of Rwanda, however in an earlier time period. I wonder if we would know more about what happened in Armenia if it had happened during a time in which media was more widespread. However there is not as much knowledge about what is going on in Darfur as I would have thought. In fact the other day right here at Nazareth I told someone about what was going on in Darfur, because she had never heard about it at all. I found this quite shocking, however I think it speaks to what we teach in schools. As someone who is going into teaching, I find it important to inform students about the world around them. I do not want to scare them, however I think it is very important to give at least some information. Even young children should understand how people live around them and the situations around the world that are not as good as what the child experiences.

Why don't we learn from the past?

As I looked at the map of major conflicts and genocides from the last hundred years or so, I was struck by the large number of conflicts mentioned around the world. As I looked at the list I was also consciously aware of the fact that the list was in no way exhaustive. What does not seem to make any sense to me is how we as an international society fail to stop these situations from occuring and why we do not seem to learn our lesson. I get quite upset when I think about Rwanda for example and see how much of a failure international, including the United States, aid was. Then I think about the lack of international involvement in Darfur and I can not seem to understand why, after our lack of response and the large number of lives lost in Rwanda, we would not get more involved.

I think one of the major issues, from a political science perspective, is that governments do not want to get involved in situations in which they do not benefit. I do not understand why everything has to be so self-centered. We live in a very nationalist society. If there was more compassion, and less emphasis on economic gain, perhaps we would be more compassionate towards people outside of our own countries. The world would be a better place, in my opinion, if we did not have the policy of love thy neighbor so long as he or she lives in on your side of your border. This is my hope for the world.