Listen…can you hear it?…it’s the sound of the hillsides and fields of Rwanda
where in their hundreds of thousands the dead lie silent.
Listen…it’s the sound of fear in neighboring Burundi where people are praying
that the killing machetes will not come their way.
Listen…it’s the stored up, concentrated silence of prisoners locked away for
years for a thing they once thought, or believed, or were.
Listen…it’s the only message there will ever be from the disappeared, snatched
by death squads, never to be seen or heard from by their families again.
Listen…it’s the silence of the small room after the torturers have left.
Listen…it’s the silence in the councils of great nations when these difficult
subjects are left unmentioned.
Listen…it’s the silence of ordinary, decent people who think these things have
nothing to do with them, and that they can do nothing to help.
Listen…deep inside yourself. What do you hear?
Break the silence.