clips

kara and i watched this documentary last evening and it was amazing. two minutes in i was bawling and i didn't stop until after it was over. middle school kids in a wee town in tennessee called whitwell (pronounced "wtwl") learn about the holocaust by attempting to collect six million paper clips, one to represent every jew murdered.

freaky that whitwell is in such proximity to pulaski, where the kkk was founded, and dayton, where the monkey trial took place. i urge people to see this documentary. the point is made a few times that it's a one-horse town and there's no diversity in it and plenty of prejudice. some of those involved in this project had a sincere turn-around in this arena and that definitely got to me too.

kara was moved in the same way, as she grew up in towns not unlike this one, only in texas. she grew up around this kind of prejudice. it's a testament, i imagine, to her parents, that she came out of that situation okay. i wish i could have met them.

one thing did bother me about the film and it is this - well, it's not just this film, really, but the film does perpetuate the issue. the number "six million" keeps getting tossed around. that number represents the estimanted number of jews killed in the camps, yes? the documentary offhandedly mentions that this number does not include the gypsies, gays, and others who were systematically eliminated. so what's the real number, of everybody? ten million? twelve million? what?

interesting, perhaps, that last weekend (while kara was at work and jennifer and rick were with his cousin's family) i watched another documentary called "mr death", about a moron who thinks he has disproved the holocaust. i guess it was theme week. i need to watch "schindler's list" again soon.