We will never be broken…
I sat down this morning to watch Anderson Cooper 360 from last night, a two hour show about refugee camps and interspersed with an interview with Angelina Jolie who is an ambassador for the UN, pays for all her UN trips and donates 1/3 of her income, not to mention her time and passion, to displaced people. The show was heartbreaking, heartbreaking to see the immense cruelty that humanity is capable, but also heartbreaking to see the immense strength and beauty of humanity as well. I can’t even process it, but one piece took my breath away, a vivid snapshot of this extraordinary duel extremes of the human race.
"They can take away my womanhood," a fifteen year old girl from the Congo says while crying, "but they can never take away my spirit." Fifteen years old. Raped by 15 men for eight days. Brought in on a stretcher. Can only walk with a can now. She stands with a large group of women, all ages, brought together by horrific sexual assaults. They sang. They clapped their hands together, together, together, and they sang: "We will never be broken," they sang, "we will never be broken".
Fifteen and she embodies all that is horrific about humanity and all that is strong and stunningly beautiful.
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