Sometimes I read a book or watch a movie or documentary that burrows into my heart and stays on my mind days and even weeks after I first learned about it. The nineteen nineteen movie Mr. Jones left me pondering about the cruelty that we humans sometimes inflict on each other. The film tells the true story of Gareth Jones, a Welsh journalist in the nineteen thirties who had gained a small moment of notoriety for landing an interview with Adolf Hitler long at the beginning of his rise to power in Germany. After the success of his story Jones became obsessed with the idea of also interviewing Joseph Stalin which prompted him to travel to Russia to see if he can strike journalistic gold again. 

Once in Moscow Jones learns that a friend and colleague has been murdered. After doing some research of his own he finds out that his associate was following leads that would have put the lie to the accepted belief that the Soviet nation was economically sound. Jones decides to set aside his dream of talking to Stalin and to instead visit Ukraine where the truth of Soviet economic status seems likely to found. He embarks on a journey that will uncover evidence of the Ukrainian Holodomor of nineteen thirty two to nineteen thirty three. He sees firsthand proof that theSoviet policies of nationalizing the farming of grain in Ukraine led to a famine that left millions dead or starving.

The imagery of the film left me in tears, particularly one scene which portrayed a young child crying for his mother who had died while holding him. I began to think of the many times that I have read of famine here or there around that world and not really considered what that means. I found myself grieving for the many times in history that people have died from human negligence or lust for power. I thought of current situations around the world that are leaving innocents vying for food even as we Americans waste and throw away enough to feed everyone. I suddenly realized how much I take for granted. I began to consider what I might do to help. I cried for those who died back then and thought of the photos I have seen of Palestinians in Gaza holding bowls in hopes of having them filled today. I wondered why we humans seem inclined to all too often look away when we see such situations happening in far away places or even near our homes. What makes us want to cover our eyes and stuff our ears?

History is repeating the story of Gareth Jones even today. He spent time in a Russian prison for his investigation. He was branded a spy and a liar by Russia. Eventually he was freed and returned to Great Britain where he told his truths while being branded a man who had lost his mind. He would be spurned by society and relegated to ridicule until he convinced William Randolph Hearst to run his story. It would be decades before there was enough proof to demonstrate that Mr. Jones had always been right. 

I suppose it is natural to want to believe the best of people and nations. Most people did not want to think that Hitler was really going to carry out the promises of Mein Kampf. The starving of millions in Ukraine was too horrible to believe. Even when we see photos of the concentration camps or the bombed out buildings in war zones after the fact we find it difficult to believe that we humans can be so cold hearted with each other. Surely the cries and whispers of pain must be hyperbole or lies. How could such thing happen? Why is there so much disbelief when history has shown us again and again how cruel humans have the capacity to be? It is far easier to get over the enormity of evil needed to enslave other human beings by explaining it away with beliefs that the people just did not know better. Surely, though, a voice must whisper to us that they did know better but just did not care.

There is a wave of ignorance demanding that we wear kid gloves and happy faces when teaching our young about history. Such an egregious process of hiding the truth only makes horrors all the more easy to produce. When evil is cloaked in ignorance it does our young far more harm than when we are truthful and teach them how to be careful of false promises that wrongly abuse others. Ignoring or hiding truth inevitably hurts the innocent. Pretending that all is well when it is not continues the most horrific stories of humankind. The heart of darkness beats ever stronger when we pretend that all is fine in the face of evil. 

I am feeling plaintive and sorrowful today as I think of how almost a hundred years have passed since the Ukrainian people were so brutally starved and forced into labor for the benefit of Russia. I think of how little we have learned since Hitler came to power and how we are still trying to just smile and bury the truths so that we might fool ourselves that none of it matters because it does not have a direct effect on our lives. 

Sadly that is exactly the wrong way to be. Mr. Jones was right. The truths must be told no matter how difficult they are to face. It is up to us to prepare our children to be just by being always honest. Young people can handle the truth but they are destroyed when they learn that we have been lying. Sometimes we don’t want to hear something but we must. It is in knowing what is real that we can learn how to change for the better.