Rip EW

[1happygirl]

I confess I am not as well versed as many here or on all aspects of this man's life and career but I like and respect this. Apologies if this has been posted recently, I didn't realize he just died (July 2)

NYTimes obit:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/03/world/europe/elie-wiesel-auschwitz-survivor-and-nobel-peace-prize-winner-dies-at-87.html?_r=0

[Ray]

He survived the the holocaust, getting out of Buchenwald at 16 after seeing his father murdered in the camp. And he never forgot and he never let the rest of us forget either. And yet he remained a great humanitarian who believed in the goodness of humanity, despite understanding the badness of humanity better than almost anyone. I saw him speak at a holocaust survivors convention in the Old City of Jerusalem in 1981, along with Menachim Begin. I was in Jerusalem at the time, during my young man travel-the-world phase, and an Israeli friend was able to get me in to hear the speakers. As powerful as any speaker I've ever heard, before or since.

He was a great man and his lessons about both the good and horrible bad that humans are capable of are incredibly important at any time, but particularly at this fraught time in our history, when many western nations seem to be looking to divisive political "solutions" during these times of economic insecurity...

-Ray

[OtayBW]

RIP Elie Wiesel