Calendar of Horrors

Yesterday I checked out some dates on my wife’s Human Rights Watch  Calendar and couldn’t help but notice some of the special days they marked. Amongst them: 

 

• International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust (Jan. 27)

• International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (Feb. 6)

• International Day Against the Use of Child Soldiers (Feb. 12)

• International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (March 21)

• Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Rwandan Genocide (April 7)

• Day of Remembrance for all Victims of Chemical Warfare (April 29)

• International Day to End Obstetric Fistula (look it up) (April 23

• Anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre (April 31)

• International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking (June 26)

• International Day in Support of Victims of Torture (June 26)

• Sebrenica (in Bosnia)Massacre Memorial Day (July 11)

• World Day Against Trafficking in Persons (July 30)

• International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition (Aug. 23)

• International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances (Aug. 30)

• International Day to Protect Education from Attack (Sept. 9)

• International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (Oct. 17)

• International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists (Nov. 2)

• International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (Nov. 25)

• World Genocide Commemoration Day (Dec. 9)

 

Sorry to ruin your nice day, but that’s one sorry-assed list (and it could have been longer) reminding us that we are one sorry-assed species. That we are evolution’ biggest mistake. That horror knows no national borders. That perhaps  George Bernard Shaw was right when he wrote: 

 

“I don’t know if there are men on the moon, but if there are, they must be using the earth as their lunatic asylum.”

 

And yet. There could easily be another calendar with International Day of Children’s Laughter, International Day of Kids Learning to Skip, International Day of Friends Supporting Each Other, International Day of Self-forgiveness. And so on.

 

So as we turn towards the new year, choose your calendar wisely.