The enjoyment of watching our favorite shows doesn’t always
stop when we come to Peace Corps.
Oftentimes we get hooked on new ones.
We live alone and there’s only so much reading and playing solitaire one can do
on a Saturday night. My current show of
choice is The West Wing.
Season 3 Episode 1 aired right after September 11th,
so they deviated from the normal storyline and shot a completely different
episode. In it, many members of Senior
White House staff talk with a group of high school students about Islamic
extremism. The students ask the main question
many of us were asking at that time: why do they hate us so much? During the conversation, the White House
Communications Director tells a story from his childhood, evoking the Holocaust. It really struck me.
“A friend of my dad’s was at one of the camps. He used to come over the house and he and my
dad used to shoot some pinochle. He said
he once saw a guy at the camp kneeling and praying.
He said, ‘What are you doing?’
The guy said he was thanking God. And my dad’s friend said, ‘What could you
possibly be thanking God for?’
He said, ‘I’m thanking God for not making me like them.’”
Somehow having the grace to maintain my humanity at a time
like that? I’d thank God too.
...Thoughts?
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