Responsibility Poem by Kimberly Burnham

When I heard genocide survivor and poet, Alicia Partnoy was coming to speak at Gonzaga University, I started to think about my responsibility…What is our responsibility in the face of another person's tragedy? What do we each lose when someone is 'disappeared? ' In her 2002 album, 'And Still We Sing: The Outspoken Collection' Holly Near sings about women who were 'disappeared' in Chile and other places in Latin America. She starts the song 'Hay Una Mujer Desaparecida' with a few of the names of women who have disappeared under military dictatorships.