Today I stood before a class of high school sophomores teaching from author Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. We were discussing the elements of a timeless book and the reasons for reading a book written in 1953. "Could it be, in part, that Bradbury accurately saw the future?" I asked. Together we read this passage from page 73:
We've started and won two atomic wars since 1990! Is it because we're having so much fun at home we've forgotten the world? Is it because we're so rich and the rest of the world's so poor and we just don't care if they are? I've heard rumors; the world is starving, but we're well fed. Is it true, the world works hard and we play? Is that why we're hated so much?"
I then asked the students how many of them knew about Darfur Sudan? Three of the twenty-nine students raised their hand. Even I was surprised.
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