Elie Wiesel, to my knowledge, never used the word \u201cempathy\u201d in class, but he exhibited it in character and practice. I vividly remember his telling the story of meeting with Slobodan Milo\u0161evi\u0107. The genocidal president tried appealing to Wiesel through villainizing the Muslim faith of his victims, a ploy that fell on deaf ears. Race, religion or\u00a0creeds are secondary to humanity. As a college student, I was blessed to witness empathy in its purest form.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d like to add that he also instilled in me the belief that art is the most powerful way to influence change. While few today know the governing laws of\u00a0415-BCE\u00a0Greece, Euripides\u00a0is still performed in high\u00a0schools across the\u00a0country, and the Trojan Women<\/em> teach us lessons of empathy in 2016 as powerful as opening night in Athens.<\/p>\n I\u2019m grateful to have the gift of viewing humanity through the lenses of Atticus Finch\u00a0and Elie Wiesel.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>\u2014Peter Hinga \u201904 <\/strong><\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” width=”1\/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]Today, the word \u201cempathy\u201d is thrown around often. Folks often use this word to mitigate a previous comment that was fundamentally unempathetic. Elie Wiesel, to my knowledge, never used…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-00-09"},"yoast_head":"\n