Ubumuntu

     So much for the euphoria of Dancing Queen.  I am at LEAST as morose as the cowboy on the dusty road in Nevada.  My moroseness comes from the acute shame that "my" president created for the entire United States by crassly and stupidly dismissing all of Africa, together with Haiti--reportedly.  Click here if you've been in a coma the past few days.  My shame is compounded by the many commentators opining that what the president says may be blunt but represents what many--maybe most--Americans really think.  I refuse to believe that's true, even though I have to admit that there is some evidence for the truth of this ugly proposition.

     So, being 

that today (when

 I am writing

this entry) is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and being that the entry I planned for today is about Kigali's Genocide Center, I am calling this entry the Kinyarwanda word "Ubumuntu" in the hopes that I can make a teeny tiny contribution to that concept.

Kigali's Genocide Center is beautiful, respectful, and of course somber.  We Americans are probably only familiar with "The Genocide" through the movie Hotel Rwanda and the occasional other moving stories that comes across our U.S.-centric consciousness.  The Center tells the story of possibly the worst 100 days in world history in 1994, during which Rwandan turned against Rwandan, the result being the horrible deaths of at least a fifth of the country's population.  [Oh, and while I'm beating up on the U.S., allow me to point out that the U.S. ignored the situation in Rwanda at that time, being too preoccupied with Bosnia.  It may well be worth noting that Bosnians are white.]
    Let's all strive for Ubumuntu.