A TIME FOR ACTION
There is a time for silence and a time to cry out. In Elie Wiesel’s novel, The Town Beyond the Wall, a Jewish mother and young son, trying to escape the Nazis, are hiding in a farm wagon covered with hay. Before they get into the wagon, the mother takes the little boy’s head between her hands and warns him, “We must be silent. Whatever happens! It’s our only chance. Our lives depend on it. Even if you’re afraid, even if you’re hurt, don’t call out and don’t cry!” The five-year-old child says he understands, the hay is piled over them and off they go. At a road-stop the guards, noticing the nervousness of the driver, ask what else he is carrying. “Nothing at all,” he says. The guards then draw their swords and plunge them indiscriminately into the hay until the farmer winces in fear. Seeing this, the guards empty the wagon, and find the little boy sitting in…
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