What will YOU do?

Recently I took a course in Human Rights Advocacy in which the instructor had a guest lecturer almost every week explaining their own particular causes in detail. Sometimes the speaker had achieved victory, but usually they were still in the process of educating, fighting, petitioning, lobbying, writing, labeling, etc, for their particular causes. After one such speaker who had fired up the class for her case left the room, one of the students asked this question:

"There are so many causes out there. So many things that need fixed. As a human rights advocate, where do you start?"

The instructor smiled and stated that you had to follow your heart.

I found that answer to be quite refreshing. The student was left to find her own answer to that question and I found justification in mine.

There are many good fights out there and to my mind, equal rights for Romanies is one of those critical issues. We demand our equal rights. We demand justice. We demand respect. We do a lot of demanding. We shouldn't have to.

The reason I bring this up is because I heard about a conversation between two Romanies that startled me. The conversation took place just days ago and involved an older Rom speaking to his son about education. In short, the father explained to his son that education was not important since it is a 'gadji' education.

I thought hard on that, and in a sense it is true. Education is a gadji education. The victors write the history and, let's face it, it is rare the Romanies are the victors. We've been written out of the history books. We've become a footnote in Holocaust texts and, in one of my human rights text books, a parenthetical notation. Why? But more importantly, what can we do?

We must become the educators. There is a statement made in The Memorial Book: The Gypsies at Auschwitz that has always astounded me. It refers to the relationship between the Germans and the Romanies, "it has been left to the minority to document the history of their persecution and to remind others of it" (emphasis mine).

That is a profound statement. It really is. We shouldn't have to. I know this. The evidence is clear, for all the world to see. We were equally persecuted by the Nazis and were persecuted centuries before the Third Reich came into existence. We know this from the gadji's own history. Look at the law books. It's hidden in plain sight. We shouldn't have to. But we do. Get over it.

It is time we claimed our history, claimed our rights, and then we may begin to go about the task of reminding the world of what really happened and what is currently happening. We are on the verge of genocide in Europe with no help from Canada or the United States. We don't get much help from governments now a days. We KNOW that.

So, we know the problem. We have been written off by the gadji and we have few allies. What is the solution?

It has been left to the minority (Romanies) to document the history of their persecution and to remind others of it.

Education. Pure and simple. We need that gadji education so we know how to teach them the truth. We can't rely on them to wake up one day and realize what has been going on in the world. It just isn't going to happen. We need to learn what they are teaching the next generation so that we can learn how to re-insert our history into theirs, because they have forgotten how history is not just one story, but many stories of many nations. Some win, some lose. But all of these stories contain one single element, a single thread that is true in every story. It is the thread of humanity.

Each one of us, Romani and non-Romani, share that. We are ALL human beings and we deserve equal treatment in life and within the history books. Only when the world realizes this fact will we see equality in everyone.

Get that education and then teach. When you tell one person, they will tell someone else, who will tell someone else. Yes, if we have to, we will fight this war one person at a time. One person at a time is better than no one at all.

We do a lot of shouting. We do a lot of complaining. But few listen. Time to put action to words and do something. Learn your own history. Good or bad, claim it proudly. Then show what you know. Write letters. Volunteer to teach in your local classrooms. Speak at clubs and organizations. Write your local paper. Talk to anyone who will listen.

Don't like the world? Complaining about it won't help much. Get over it. Then get on with it. It's time to fight the good fight.