Bren,

"Of course, no one stepped into Rwanda to stop the genocide we watched happen in real time as well. "

A group of UN soldiers tried, and their Canadian commander, lieutenant-general Roméo Dallaire, disobeyed orders from the U.N., and tried to save not just Tutsis but also the Belgian troops under his command: 10 were killed.

Dallaire was so badly haunted by what happened that his PTSD left him catatonic and suicidally ideated on an Ottawa park bench.

He wrote a book about it which was part of what brought this humanitarian back from the brink: 'Shake Hands with the Devil.'

Here's what he had to say about the UN mission:

"...how the international community, through an inept UN mandate and what can only be described as indifference, self-interest and racism, aided and abetted these crimes against humanity -- how we all helped create the mess that has murdered and displaced millions and destabilized the whole central African region."

And on a more personal level:

"For many of these years, I have yearned to return to Rwanda and disappear into the blue-green hills with my ghosts. A simple pilgrim seeking forgiveness and pardon.

But as I slowly begin to piece my life back together, I know the time has come for me to make a more difficult pilgrimage: to travel back through all those terrible memories and retrieve my soul."

Lastly, indifference to the woes of all of us, whether in Sudan or Ferguson, Missouri or the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Northwest China, ultimately hurts us all.