People tend to act as they see moral and appropriate. Genocides are no exception. As thousands or millions of people are killed, the people doing the killing often times believe they are doing what is right. It is not that they kill out of anger or rage, but simply because they see another group or race unfit or unclean. This all begins with a person�s underlying beliefs. When someone believes that there is a certain standard a person must meet, everyone who does not fit, must not exist because they are harming the unity of perfection. The only way to rid them of this imperfection is to kill them.

Genocide is the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national or racial group. There are several forms this may take. It may be as large and as obvious as Hitler�s plan to exterminate the Jews, which included devoting much time and money into constructing extermination camps for them or, something much less well known and not quite as systematic taking place in Rwanda. Whatever the case may be, the world knows, and the United Nations has declared, that genocide is wrong.

Today, many people are unaware of genocide taking place. One reason may be that the news has very little on it, or it may be that many people do hear about it, but are in denial. It is possible to be in denial because the do not believe that humans can be that cruel. Another possibility is that they believe after the well-known tragic Holocaust, the world would never have genocide again because everyone saw the great horror of it. Also, Americans tend to be caught up in their own lives and problems and are blind as to what is happening throughout the rest of the world. They are unaware that their problems are often times seemingly insignificant compared to people whose problem is trying to not be murdered by a certain group because of their ethnicity.

Genocide is easy for us, as Christians, to see as wrong because we have been taught, and believe that killing is wrong. The United Nations is not made up of only Christians, and yet they too have seen the immorality of genocide. How does this happen that a non-Christian alliance also feels this way? This leads to an answer which is that no matter what religion or ethnic background a person grows up in, for the most part, the taking of innocent lives is wrong. However, although it appears that people who carry out a deliberate and systematic extermination of a group does not uphold this value of life, they actually hold it up to a great extent. A group who carries out genocide is not killing for the fun of it. They believe that killing these people is good and necessary.

Knowing this, we must be aware that it is possible for a seemingly harmless group turn into a killing party if their underlying belief tells them to do so. If we are aware of this, we should never let it happen to us. We must stay informed of the world around us, taking into account all that happens, good and bad. When the news does tell of a tragedy instead of ignoring it because we do not want to be burdened by it, we should embrace the information. We should do this because we live in a powerful country. The United States has the power and resources to help people who are being killed. In the past our government has acted as though it does not know what is happening to people who are dying in the world, and even if genocide has been apparent, appropriate action has not always taken place.

This seems like something which should not be a question for our government. Our government has the strength to aid all people in the world, if the support is put where it needs to be. Maybe instead of putting more money into military, the government could spend a little more time and money providing aid to people who are under unjust persecution such as genocide. However, one problem is that the United States government is very political. If the government is aware of something happening, no matter how bad, even if it is genocide, politics may prevent our leaders from sending aid to people. This is totally contrary to what we, as a nation, have ruled. In the past we too have mercilessly killed Native Americans. Today, the United States realizes that it was wrong, and never should have happened. Our leaders tell us they will never allow it to happen again. However, it has happened. Maybe not in our country, but the United States has allowed it to continue in other parts of the world solely because it is not politically correct.