Stolen For The Common Good

This is reprinted from the blog (http://unshelvingbeth.blogspot.com) of a good friend and regular ZiggyBackRide visitor. I'm proud of her for writing it and proud to post it for you here....


Thursday, November 09, 2006

Darfur: Your Obligation

Yesterday I participated in a Fast for Darfur Awareness, then attended a break-the-fast meal, where a Stop Genocide activist showed us some film clips from the refugee camps in Chad and gave us an overview of the current situation. He told us of the choiceless choices refugee families face when they need to send someone to retrieve water or firewood: send your son, who might be killed, or your daughter, who will likely be raped. He told us that the number "400,000 dead" was the official calculation in 2004 - and there has been no updated calculation, so the number is probably far greater than that. He told us about the fact that when Bush first took office, Sudanese Arabs were killing Sudanese Christians in a North-South conflict, and the Christian Right leaned on Bush, who leaned on Sudan -- and those killings ceased. The United States does have the power to make a difference, and as its citizens, we are the ones who must call for action.

The speaker ended his presentation with some stark and challenging questions:"If you had all the information you currently possess about what happened during the Holocaust, and armed with that information you could go back to the early 1930s and have the opportunity to DO something... what would you do? If you had all the information we currently have about the horrors in Rwanda, and you could go back to the early 1990s, what would you do? We HAVE the information, NOW, about what's going on in Darfur. What are you going to do?"

It's so easy to do nothing... but it is also wrong. It doesn't matter that the Darfurians are far away. It doesn't matter that they speak another language. It doesn't matter that their lives seem so different from ours.DO SOMETHING.Having read this blog, you are now obligated to DO SOMETHING, RIGHT NOW. Put in a call to your senator (the Democratic takeover is a fantastic time of shake-down and transition as far as pushing forward an agenda item like this), send a postcard to George W. Bush or Kofi Annan, sign an email petition, make a donation to Doctors without Borders, re-post this call to action on your own blog, educate yourself about the issue - but do something. Here are some websites to get you started:

Stop Genocide Now
Save Darfur
Doctors Without Borders
AJWS-Darfur Action