WHAT DID YOU FOR DARFUR?
By Jennifer Chestnut
Akron Jewish News
May 30 2006
In 15 years when your kids are working on school history projects
and ask what you did for the situation in Darfur, what will you tell
them? This question bubbles in my mind and has since Sunday, April 30.
In our house, as with most families with two working parents and two
small kids, Sunday is dedicated to housework, tag-team early morning
childcare, a little outside time and, if we’re lucky, getting everyone
to nap at the same time. But on April 30 we dedicated it to something
else. We-yes, all four of us, including 4-year old Seth is 4 and
9-month old Martha-loaded in the minivan and headed for Washington,
D.C. to attend the Save Darfur Rally to Stop Genocide.
The rally was moving, powerful, energizing, depressing, embarrassing
and rewarding. By now you may have read the reports about the day’s
speakers. They all made the event powerful and energizing, along with
the 15,000 people in attendance. But it was depressing to realize
the magnitude of what’s really going on in the Darfur region of
Sudan. It was depressing to see the photos of the abysmal situation
and of Sudanese people in attendance that have family there right
now. It also shamed me to realize how little I did for the atrocities
and genocides that have happened “on my watch.” What did we do about
Rwanda? Not the US, but us, me, you; did you do anything? I didn’t. I
was a thinking college student able to do something. But I did nothing.
It’s easier for me now. I work at a college and have the student
manpower and the environment to do a little more than normal. But we
owe it to ourselves, to the people of Sudan, to the memories of those
who were killed in previous genocides that we may feel connected to
(the Holocaust, Armenia, Rwanda,etc.) to do something. If nothing
else, just learn more about the situation and talk about it with
friends so they too are more aware.
Maybe we did nothing more than make ourselves feel better by attending
the Save Darfur rally. I hope not. I hope that we were counted among
the tens of thousands, so the Bush administration knows that the world
is watching. I hope that you take three minutes to do something, too.
Chestnut is the director of Hillel at Kent State University.
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
