Making a Difference in Darfur
As I stood on the Mall yesterday among probably 10,000 other people with a political conscience yelling "We can make a difference", I found myself wondering if we really could. We wore our colorful new tee shirts and waved placards and banners to the crowd and to the cameras, but I harbored a disquieting concern that I was actually quite powerless to affect the atrocities currently being perpetrated in Darfur.
This place where so much has gone wrong is so far from here in time and space. Women are being raped and children are being killed every day as the majority of Americans go their way with not the slightest idea where to find Darfur on the world map.
The impressive list of speakers, ranging form Elie Wiesel to Nancy Pelosi to David Saperstein to George Clooney, whipped the crowd into a frenzy on multiple occasions. I clapped and yelled, but continued to question the reality of making a difference. I saw one sign that said, "Get our troops out of Iraq and into Darfur" and recoiled at the idea of the U.S. taking on yet another war and spilling U.S. blood on more foreign soil. I listened as David Saperstein suggested that the real solution will come from a U.N. peace-keeping force, much like that used in Bosnia, imagining that China and Russia are never going to vote for that because they get oil from Sudan! I looked around and calculated that the money spent on all of the colorful tee shirts could probably have fed a huge number of starving people in Darfur.
What was most amazing about yesterday's rally was that the majority of people there were Jews – Jews who remember the Holocaust and are trying in whatever ways they can to prevent the continuation of this kind of mentality.
Today most of the new tee shirts are in the laundry, the adults are back at work, the children are back at school. Did the rally sow some sort of seeds that will sprout to choke out the crimes against humanity that are still occurring halfway around the world? I would like to hope so, but my pessimism runs high.
posted by Barbara at 9:04 AM
4 Comments:
We are pretty much on the same page with our reviews of the rally. Whatever happens next, we were there. We are aware. We are going to keep trying.
Yeah I agree with Kristin. We're talking about it at least and drawing what little attention we can to it.
Good post. I am glad that people are doing what they can to raise awareness on this terrible crisis - and you are very much helping to do that. We all have our voice and need to learn the most effective way to use it, and sometimes being someone wearing a t-shirt at a rally is the best way that you can help. Thanks for being there.
Yes, I agree with stef that you did a great post here about darfur Barbara. I have to admit that immediately after reading, I checked on darfur and got me aware that such carnage still exists in this part of africa.
Is ethnic cleansing as a gross violation to humanity here to stay and be a constant dark area throughout the history of mankind?
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