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Hope, Despair and Misery, a la Shmoop. And you thought that guy who won the Best

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Actor Oscar last year gave a great acceptance speech.

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Pshaw. In 1986, Elie Wiesel <<Ee-lee why-zuhl>> was

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awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

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However, the speech he gave when he accepted the award was so brilliant and moving…

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…that they nearly also awarded him the Nobel Prize for Literature on the spot.

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All right, we may be exaggerating a tad. But it was good. Real good.

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In his speech, Wiesel argued for the importance of peace.

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He begged the world to face history and learn from it, because “it is memory that will

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save humanity.”

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He said that, “…there may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but

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there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”

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It was powerful, stirring, rich with horrifying anecdotes from Wiesel’s own life…

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…and was enough to make a pacifist out of just about anyone.

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And yet… there are still religious wars being waged every day.

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Minorities are still persecuted, senseless acts of violence and cruelty run rampant.

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Does this mean that Wiesel’s speech… really didn’t do much?

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To be fair… it was just a speech.

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A half hour or so of words.

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Impactful and rousing words, granted… but words, and nothing more.

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No weapons had been taken out of the hands of the hateful…

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…no religious conversions had been performed. His speech might have changed minds…

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…but in the scheme of things, he really didn’t reach that wide of an audience.

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It wasn’t like the Nobel Committee could stream it online.

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It would be asking a lot of Elie Wiesel to craft a speech that would actually inspire

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peace on earth and good will toward men.

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He was a great man with a great mind, but he was no miracle worker.

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But just because there was no sudden, sweeping change in humankind’s treatment of one another…

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…did that mean his speech was a failure? Obviously, if everyone in this world gave

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up, we’d be in rough shape.

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There would be acts of uninhibited racism committed every minute.

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A misguided sense of ethnic superiority would reign supreme.

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Although he was only one small soldier on a sprawling battlefield…

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…didn’t Wiesel do his part to help the rest of us… keep fighting?

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Or, perhaps more appropriately… to stop fighting?

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It is these rare, inspirational voices that gradually move the slow ticking needle of

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human progress forward.

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Although the effect of this one speech on its own may be negligible…

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…it is this practice of broadcasting a message promoting love and acceptance that reminds

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each of us of our humanity.

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It’s just a shame that we can’t flip on the TV and hear more of it, more often.

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Instead of being inspired by some hot new actress to purchase her latest fragrance.

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