Xavier Universe

Lithuanian Dawn
Our day began early. Quite early to be extact. 3:20 A.M. to be percise. The mourning featured a flight to Warsaw at 5:45AM and a flight to Vilinus at 7:15AM. The air peursure was a little bit pressing on some of our ears. We then arrived in Vilinus, the captial of Lithuninia. Now irregradless of the work I had done in reading about half of a Ebook on the history of Lithuninia, like most Americans I was quite ignorant about every aspect of the country. However a day of wandering the country made be realize that in every way this is a quite intersting and important place. Once upon a time Lithunina was actually an empire, spanning from what is today Lithunina and most of what is today Belarus and Poland. However our first stop focused on Lithunina's role in post cold war world. We had a meeting with Lithunina's Ambassdor for Jewish affairs and learned about the vital role that Lithunina plays in perserving the memory of Jewish life in Europe. The ambassdor passed us a detailed map that documented the demograhpics of Lithuninia in the late 19th century. The Lithunian government is active in promoting this knowledge both within and beyond the country. I was amazed to see how diverse the country was with its large Jewish populations in almost every villiage and city.  The recent history of the country has seen genocide by the NAZIS and then over four decedes of forced forgetfullness by the Soveits. Yet the Lithunian people have risen up beyond dark history forced upon by outsiders and has taken its past, persent and future into its own hands. Today Lithuninia plays a large in organizations like the European Union helping build a more united world. By his sharing about the countries Jewish heritiage, the  Ambassdor showed us that the Lithuniain exsperence can be valuble for any people seeking healing and learning after terrible events. Most Americans either do not know that thier is a country named Lithuninia. Most who do know write it off as a small country, indeed with a population of around 2.8 million, it is smaller than many US states. Until today I was one of these people. Yet small does not mean unimportant. As our world grows more diverse and we seek ways to move to tolerance (and then hopefully to celebration) Lithuninia can prove quite instructive.
Matthew Crowe