Paper Clips: A project of love and tolerance

In my Media & Diversity class today, we had an unusually good three-hour class meeting watching two documentaries: one on American influence on Middle Eastern culture, and one called Paper Clips, an absolutely beautiful and heartwrenching documentary about the Jewish Holocaust.

I am extremely sensitive to the Holocaust - a time I consider to be the darkest period in humanity, a time when "God turned His eyes and the world got mean," a time when hatred and power collided together fatally and destroyed so much life. I have met and spoken with several Holocaust survivors, thanks to my wonderful high school English teacher Jan Corneilson, and I have walked the very halls of Anne Frank's house in Amsterdam. The whole period is hauntingly fascinating and powerfully heartwrenching; I usually feel a mixture of deep-seated sadness and a surreal sense of self whenever I immerse myself in it.

Today was no different. Paper Clips is the documentary movie of a middle school in Tennessee, where some teachers, in 1998, started a project to teach children tolerance and how to break down stereotypes. The project focused on the Holocaust - the embodiment of intolerance - and the goal became to collect 6 million paperclips in honor of the 6 million Jews slain at the hands of the Nazis. (Norwegians at the time of the Holocaust wore paper clips on their lapels as a symbol of resistance against Nazi occupation during World War II.)

Synopsis from the movie's website:
PAPER CLIPS is the moving and inspiring documentary film that captures how these students responded to lessons about the Holocaust-with a promise to honor every lost soul by collecting one paper clip for each individual exterminated by the Nazis. Despite the fact that they had previously been unaware of and unfamiliar with the Holocaust, their dedication was absolute. Their plan was simple but profound. The amazing result, a memorial railcar filled with 11 million paper clips (representing 6 million Jews and 5 million gypsies, homosexuals and other victims of the Holocaust) which stands permanently in their schoolyard, is an unforgettable lesson of how a committed group of children and educators can change the world one classroom at a time.

In short, the movie was incredible. I broke down crying at least three times, right in the middle of class, tears pouring down my face. And I wasn't the only one - I even saw guys wiping their eyes. The project itself was beautiful enough, but the school also invited survivors to speak at the school, and their stories were just enough to make you sob.

One quiet man, wrinkled in his 80+ years, using a cane to support himself and a hearing aid in both ears, told the story of when he, his little brother (who was 3 at the time), and his mother arrived at Auschwitz. They were kept in line until they got to a guard, who instructed them either "left" or "right" down the hallways. This man was sent left, while his brother and mother were sent right. He didn't see them again, and the next morning he asked a guard where the "right" path people had gone. The guard pointed to the curling smoke in the distance, and informed him that it was a crematory. "Everyone who went right went there."

At this point, I was crying. But the man spoke so strongly and surely about his belief in peace and the good in humanity that I had chills. How could someone who had been so tortured, lost so much and seen even more, have the beautiful belief of hope in his heart? Someone who had every mortal right to want revenge and seek it, to lose all faith in humanity, instead gain faith in it and forgive his evil-doers? How could he look at the ugly tattoo on his arm not as a reminder of the horrors he had been through, but as a personal identification in which he took pride to have counted him among those who learned about intolerance the hardest way possible? But he did.

And that is exactly what keeps this world going: the fact that some still have the strength to find, even after the most unimaginable torture and sadness, the most unthinkable horror and wrongdoing, love in their hearts and the ability to turn something bad to good.

Maybe someday the world will learn this, and maybe someday the wars and fighting, rapes and murder, torture and hating will end. I truly believe it is possible, if we all just open our hearts to love, and let it govern our actions, for the world to know true and lasting peace. Possible, but not probable.

But if something is even possible, shouldn't we continue in our efforts, and never give up, to make that possibility a reality?

That man is not alone. The survivors I myself have met all share the same sentiments: instead of hatred and bitter resentment about how they had been wronged, they have the superhuman power to have turned it all to love, hope, and peace. They encourage their listeners to treat others with kindness. To find inner peace with themselves and the world. To love deeply and forgive others. And most importantly, to never forget.

Because we can never forget.

~ ~ ~

This song was written for the movie, and it is absolutely beautiful. It's called "Jubilee" -- you can listen to it on the YouTube video, and I wrote the lyrics below:

Jubilee
(Alison Krauss/Cheryl White/Andrea Zonn)

The sun came up on Monday morn
The world was all in flame
It's all a mortal man can do
To make it right again

Swing and turn, Jubilee
Live and learn, Jubilee

The moon came up
I stood my ground
And swore to not give in
To never rest and do my best
To rid this world of sin

Swing and turn, Jubilee
Live and learn, Jubilee

The one who spoke cried tears of hope
That we might change in time
And when I looked into her eyes
The fear I saw was mine

Swing and turn, Jubilee
Live and learn, Jubilee

The time had come to travel on
I made my way alone
My soul will mend at journey's end
This road will take me home.

Swing and turn, Jubilee
Live and learn, Jubilee

Paper Clips Movie: http://www.paperclipsmovie.com/

~ ~ ~

And one of my favorite songs about peace and humanity:

From A Distance
(Bette Midler)

From a distance the world looks blue and green
and the snow-capped mountains white
From a distance the ocean meets the stream
and the eagle takes to flight

From a distance, there is harmony
and it echoes through the land
It's the voice of hope
It's the voice of peace
It's the voice of every man

From a distance we all have enough
and no one is in need
And there are no guns, no bombs, and no disease
No hungry mouths to feed.

From a distance we are instruments
Marching in a common band
Playing songs of hope
Playing songs of peace
They're the songs of every man
God is watching us
God is watching us
God is watching us from a distance

From a distance you look like my friend
Even though we are at war
From a distance I just cannot comprehend
What all this fighting is for

From a distance there is harmony
and it echoes through the land
And it's the hope of hopes
It's the love of loves
It's the heart of every man

It's the hope of hopes
It's the love of loves
This is the song of every man
And God is watching us
God is watching us
God is watching us from a distance
Oh, God is watching us, God is watching
God is watching us from a distance.