"Night" by Elie Wiesel

Julz is going to update the blog in a few minutes with some pics and info about Emma so that let me off the hook and able to send some info about a book I just finished. Story: I do crosswords. In the course of this one of the names that I constantly see is Elie Wiesel. I was in the Baylor bookstore the other day and saw this book that he had written and became curious enough to begin checking it out. At the time I didn't know anything about him other than he is a Nobel Peace Prize winner in literature, however, through looking at the jacket of the book I found out that he is a holocaust survivor. "Night" is the first book that he wrote about his experiences as a Jew from modern day Hungary that was transported in late 1944 to Auschwitz. It is a difficult read, but an important one. I have seen movies and heard about things that took place during that time, but never from a first-hand perspective in such a provactive way. I was shocked and moved. Through his writing it is easy (and impossible) to put oneself into the experiences he relates in this book. He writes with the passion and from the perspective that he cannot be silent when humans commit such atrocities against another. He must tell the story or he joins the oppressors. He has a foundation (click on the title above or visit http://www.eliewieselfoundation.org/) that speaks to his committment to raise awareness for the oppressed in many areas of the world today. I guess my reason for mentioning things like this (as well as things like Invisible Children) is that I do not want to join the oppressors and remain silent as I hear about things that are real and that we can do something about. Elie's website calls awareness to such issues as well. Check it out and join those who will speak aloud about what is going on around us and ask what we can do about it.