From: elizabeth partridge <ep>
Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 11:12:51 -0700

John Lennon _did_ say we are all Gandhi and we are all Hitler. This was Lennon's brilliance as a songwriter: He could feel his way into a huge topic like fear, love, anger, loneliness, good and evil, and boil it down to a few
"simple" lines in a song, or a quick phrase tossed out at a press conference. Amazing ability. He was also aware of his own duality: a deeply angry man who advocated peace. "I sincerely believe in love and peace," he said in a 1980 interview. "I am a violent man who has learned not to be violent and regrets his violence."

 For every Hitler, there are thousands and thousands of people who carry out his commands. I'm researching the Vietnam war right now, and it is truly harrowing what nice young men from America did. Some men write of their actions later with shock and sorrow, some with undisguised glee. Extremely painful to read. Evil? If you were a Vietnamese villager just trying to survive, you might well say yes.

 I really appreciate Emma and Waller's impassioned posts. If we can get kids to bring their own strong reactions to the Holocaust, we're doing a great job.

 I have a related query: do any of you teach/booktalk other holocaust literature? "Hitler" is our touchstone for this kind of repression and mass killing, but there are many others. Given that we are trying to engage kids from all different ethnic groups, can people recommend well-written books about genocides in places like Guatemala, Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and Cambodia? I think it's critical to broaden the discussion, make it more global.
Received on Thu 27 Apr 2006 01:12:51 PM CDT