trying to grok

Sad, just pathetically sad.

If the scum who were supposed to be looking after those kids where to be held in confident under the same conditions, i.e. Abu Gahrab prison, the story would on the front page of the New York Times for 2 months.

I have not yet been able to look at these pictures. A huge part of me wants to, but another part of me is not sure I can handle the truth of what some humans are capable of. My heart aches for these children.

I'm confused by the concentration camp liberation comparison. The story at the end reveals that the children were moved to another orphanage, which seems to imply that it was just the criminal conduct of one manager that made this orphanage so horrible, not the government sanctioned actions of the concentration camps of WWII.

While the situation is horrible, it is more akin to those crazy foster parents who put their kids in cages or the horrible nursing homes that don't take care of their patients but do pocket the money. A horrible blip on the radar of human behavior, but in no way rising to the level of state sanctioned torture and murder of millions.

I hesitated to write that sentence because I knew it might not come out right. All I meant was the *feeling* was the same, the horror of finding these children and rescuing them, the photos of the orphanage...it all reminded me of liberating a concentration camp. I don't think anyone of my generation can ever live through something as powerful as concentration camp liberation, but this may be as close as it gets.

Unless we ever end up in North Korea...

I was afraid you would catch some flak from that comment. I almost did it myself, but you ARE much younger than I, and I did see the concentration camp pictures at age 9 or 10, a very vulnerable age. So we bring a very different experience to the table on this. I do know some (2) survivors of the Holocaust who lost most of their family. Also after Vietnam there were some really horrible exterminations. And there have been all those tribal wars in Africa. Oda Mae is right, this is more like the situations she describes and that doesn't make it any less horrible or the pictures any less terrible. I have only looked at one of the pictures. I do not need to see anymore human cruelty in my lifetime. Just say a prayer for the little ones in all of the war torn world. I wish I could do more, I cannot.