14 years later, the ill still lurks

Today we again put on our sack clothes and begin another week of mourning for our dead. Time seems to fly that it is hard to imagine that 14 years have passed since the worst Genocide in the history of mankind was committed on our land. This dark chapter has left an indelible mark that will forever taint our image as a nation. Questions will still linger in the minds of generations to come; how could humans stoop so low, run berserk all over our beautiful hills hunting out their fellow countrymen and women, regardless of age? What magic did the genocidal government of the time use to infect a section of its population with a collective hysteria? The answers may continue to elude us, but at least now we know the symptoms. Despite the government’s resolve to wipe out the genocide ideology, the seeds of hatred that were planted will take years to weed out because we still have psychopaths in our midst. This incurable disease has even been passed down to children who were not yet born in 1994, now their schools have become hotbeds of ethnic division that needs to be nipped in the bud. It is not enough to pass legislation that outlaws the Genocide ideology; our lawmakers need to think seriously on holding parents responsible for the deeds of their children. A child’s first role model is his or her parents and will emulate everything they do or say. How else would one explain a post-1994 kid taking a hard-line position in this Hutu-Tutsi nonsense? As we mourn our loved ones, let us remember that they were victims of an ideology. Their killers were not born with a homicidal streak, it was instilled in them.Ends