About a year ago I had a conversation on the Paths to Understanding Podcast with Dr. Bill Clark of Peace Catalyst and a Uyghur who is living in the United States. In that episode, we heard about how the government of China has placed many Uyghurs into internment camps. According to the UN, China has imprisoned at least 1.5 million people in what is clearly a genocide and cultural genocide. We heard about physical and psychological torture, people being “dissapeared,” and involuntary sterilization.
In the month following that podcast, our guests asked us to remove that podcast from YouTube and our podcast services. Why? Because the state of China was harassing members of our guest’s family. Of course, we did so immediately, but with sadness.
I am proud of all of our athletes who competed at the Winter Olympics. But I hardly watched.
I was disgusted by the use of a Uyghur to light the torch in an attempt to wash the stain of human rights crimes. Resting one evening, I did watch the closing ceremonies. They were beautiful and extremely well done.
But not all that glitters is gold.
This time, the glitter attempted to cover an ongoing crime against humanity: every beautiful word of peace a lie, every lovely image tarnished, every graceful action a masquerade.
More of us need to ask our elected leaders to put pressure on the government of China to stop this abuse, to make restitution to these people, and to uphold human rights for all its citizens.
Find your elected leaders, and ask them what they can do to stand up for our fellow human beings and what policies they can enact to withdraw support for these terrible crimes.
In the coming months we will be sharing further information and a new podcast episode so that we can all learn more about our Uyghur neighbors and what we can do to stand with them.
Photo by zhang kaiyv on Unsplash