Elie Wiesel died yesterday. Only in his death have I learned anything of him beyond that he wrote and spoke of the The Holocaust. Truly a “Joni Mitchell Moment” – “you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til its gone.” Luckily, his lifetime of work remains and is readily accessible.
Today I spent some time reading up on Wiesel and started reading Night, which my wife had on the bookshelf. In my crash course it seems that Wiesel’s overriding message was to warn of the danger of indifference. Numerous sources quote him as stating that “the opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference.” Having witnessed yet survived The Holocaust first hand as a teenager, Wiesel clearly lived to fulfill his own vow: “I swore never to be silent wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides.”
It occurs to me that it is so easy to be a spectator, even when the judgment needle instantly pegs the “wrong” side of our morality meter. Having settled down into a spectator’s seat, it is even easier to remain a spectator. Wiesel clearly spent his post-Holocaust life fighting indifference,, past, present, and future, and encouraged us to do the same.
“Action is the only remedy to indifference, the most insidious danger of all.”
What am I currently indifferent on that I should be taking a side on?
It occurs to me... 