Today I received an email from Russell Testa, the Animator for Peace, Justice and the Integrity of Creation for Holy Name Province. The subject of Russ’s email was the growing tragedy in Darfur. I don’t know much about Darfur and the genocide, but I do know that it isn’t getting much coverage here because we have bigger fish to fry like the midterm elections, the war on terror and other partisan bickering. Darfur doesn’t get much attention I suppose because maybe they don’t have anything to contribute to world economy. They are just very poor people dying and poor people don’t get much shrift these days. Remember the poor in New Orleans who drowned last year and after a couple of weeks on the front page we moved on to bigger stories. Our news is shaped by the people telling the stories and for some reason this story doesn’t seem to concern our news providers. There is some coverage but only a fraction compared with all the people dying there everyday. Russ Testa’s email asked us to raise awareness and so that is what I’m doing. Here is a link to an article in today’s Washington Post about the speeches by George Clooney and Elie Wiesel at the UN.
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darfur, genocide, holy name province, justice, peace, creation
Day 105 24/7 DC VIGIL for DARFUR; Day 35 HUNGER STRIKE (54 days so far this summer, with breaks); ARRESTED Sept 9th at White House with 29 others from Africa Action; http://wwww.standwithdarfurwhitehouseii.blogspot.com
THE ONLY HOPE FOR DARFUR: WE-THE-WORLD’S-PEOPLE. Duh.
It is said that the mark of truly being “crazy” is expecting different results from doing the same thing over and over and…. Ok, we needed to try some new approaches, hoping we could find a new formula for mass social change (stopping Genocide has NEVER been done); looking for an approach that would be comfortable, convenient, safe, executed from our computer terminal / phone / TV or office in some combination. The variations we’ve tried are: * Blame (Bush, UN, EU…) , * Emails, letters, postcards…,* Letting the Nonprofits do it, * Divestment. And the results are in. WE ARE NOT, STOPPING THE GENOCIDE!
You mean that the answer for Darfur is the same answer we found for…* Ending the Vietnam War, * Gaining Civil Rights in the US, * Gaining Women the right to Vote in the US, * Ending apartheid in South Africa, * Throwing off the British oppression at our start….?
Yup. No one else, nothing else can stop it, can save 4,000,000 in Concentration Camps in Sudan and Chad. The buck stops with WE-THE-WORLD’S-PEOPLE. Let’s stop talking and start – marching, demonstrating, sitting-in, hunger striking….
The next step is September 17th (SaveDarfur.org; DayForDarfur.org). BUT, then we need to be ready on SEPTEMBER 18th, 19th… AS LONG AS IT TAKES, WHATEVER IT TAKES.
Jay McGinley, jymcginley@cs.com