During lunch on Thursday, February 18, Madison High School’s second MAD Talk turned out to be a success, as history teacher Mr. Bernich presented his take on “Genocide and Madison”.

Mr. Bernich opened up by saying that we, here in the relatively calm suburb of Madison, often do not think too much about genocide and other devastating events in other areas of the world. He later presented the alarming statistic that there have been genocides in every decade since the early 1900s.

Many of us hear about genocides, but nothing really happens to solve this issue. Mr. Bernich remarked that after the definition of “genocide” was created and it was deemed a crime, people thought it would be easy to stop genocides from occurring. They thought it would be easy to find criminals of the now-defined “genocides” and arrest them for the crime. However, that was not so. Many people strayed from the use of the word and while a genocide was occurring, it was difficult to target and arrest specific people for committing the crime.

Mr. Bernich ended his speech with some inspiration for the audience. He advised students to have the desire to help where they can. For example, he suggested students take the Day of Service more seriously. He believes students and teachers should not only volunteer on the Day of Service, but going back another time to extend theimpact they have. He also listed organizations to which people can donate money to help, if they cannot donate actual efforts. 

He concluded by making it clear that there are many ways to help prevent the mass destruction and devastation that occurs during genocides around the world and that everyone should find a way to make an impact. He recalled a Jewish proverb that said something to the effect of, if one person can only help one another with their efforts, that person is still making a large impact in the world.