Save Darfur in NYC
This past weekend I was in New York City working with the UU United Nations Office and the UU Service Committee to organize events surrounding the Save Darfur Rally in Central Park. I stayed with an Intern at the UU-UNO office and his girlfriend - they were wonderful hosts! But the bulk of the visit was spent running around NYC making sure we had all the necessary elements to successfully carry out the UU gathering before the rally at All Souls Church of NY and the march following that gathering up 17 blocks to the actual rally in Central Park.
It was a powerful gathering with representatives from two dozen congregations and many Darfuri persons who came up from Philadelphia. Charlie Clements, the president of the UUSC, spoke at the gathering and then led our march. The rally itself had tons of impassioned speakers and a few musical performances. There were nearly 35,000 in attendance and the Rally made the front page of the New York Times. Over 300 UUs joined in the gathering, march, and rally.
What continues to occur in Darfur is heartbreaking. 450,000 People have died. I know that listing figures does not mean a lot to some people, but my god... that is much larger than the population of my hometown, Cincinnati.
On Monday morning there was a grasstops activist meeting of the Save Darfur Coalition at which a sort of renegade activist passed out a sheet of paper posing the question... "What would you do if five of your closest friends or family were taken to Darfur and could not leave until a UN Force was on the ground?"
It was a tough question and most of the people who were handed the sheet tucked it away and avoided confronting that uncomfortable hypothetical. There was a checklist asking if you would sacrifice your job, your safety, your home, your wealth, your reputation, your career, etc. It was a hard reality to face that if my mother and father, brother and sister, close friends and relatives were stuck in the most violent and deadly region of the globe there is nothing that I wouldn't sacrifice to help them in any way I could, but for the people who are in Darfur all I have truly sacrificed is perhaps a week of my time... for which I have been paid.
Sure, sacrificing my job or my home will not bring a peacekeeping force into Darfur any quicker. But that does not resonate in my gut.
What is happening in Darfur, the raping, the killing, the destroying, is hard to fathom and easy to forget. I think it is especially hard for UUs, who proclaim to believe in the Inherent Worth and Dignity of all Persons, to grasp the fact that what is happening in Darfur can most accurately be described as evil, pure evil.
I am very glad that the Save Darfur Coalition exists and that the UUA is a part of it. While I am working on ten or twelve different things at once, it gives me comfort that there are folks who are giving this their full attention and when they call upon us, we as UUs can rally to their support. If you have ten minutes, please review their website and take action as their website allows.
450,000 have died, 2,000,000 have been displaced, have I known one? What if I had? What would I be willing to sacrifice? What do I do when confronted with evil in the world? I will be asking these questions for sometime to come, and I will continue to push for peace in Darfur. I hope you will join me.
It was a powerful gathering with representatives from two dozen congregations and many Darfuri persons who came up from Philadelphia. Charlie Clements, the president of the UUSC, spoke at the gathering and then led our march. The rally itself had tons of impassioned speakers and a few musical performances. There were nearly 35,000 in attendance and the Rally made the front page of the New York Times. Over 300 UUs joined in the gathering, march, and rally.
What continues to occur in Darfur is heartbreaking. 450,000 People have died. I know that listing figures does not mean a lot to some people, but my god... that is much larger than the population of my hometown, Cincinnati.
On Monday morning there was a grasstops activist meeting of the Save Darfur Coalition at which a sort of renegade activist passed out a sheet of paper posing the question... "What would you do if five of your closest friends or family were taken to Darfur and could not leave until a UN Force was on the ground?"
It was a tough question and most of the people who were handed the sheet tucked it away and avoided confronting that uncomfortable hypothetical. There was a checklist asking if you would sacrifice your job, your safety, your home, your wealth, your reputation, your career, etc. It was a hard reality to face that if my mother and father, brother and sister, close friends and relatives were stuck in the most violent and deadly region of the globe there is nothing that I wouldn't sacrifice to help them in any way I could, but for the people who are in Darfur all I have truly sacrificed is perhaps a week of my time... for which I have been paid.
Sure, sacrificing my job or my home will not bring a peacekeeping force into Darfur any quicker. But that does not resonate in my gut.
What is happening in Darfur, the raping, the killing, the destroying, is hard to fathom and easy to forget. I think it is especially hard for UUs, who proclaim to believe in the Inherent Worth and Dignity of all Persons, to grasp the fact that what is happening in Darfur can most accurately be described as evil, pure evil.
I am very glad that the Save Darfur Coalition exists and that the UUA is a part of it. While I am working on ten or twelve different things at once, it gives me comfort that there are folks who are giving this their full attention and when they call upon us, we as UUs can rally to their support. If you have ten minutes, please review their website and take action as their website allows.
450,000 have died, 2,000,000 have been displaced, have I known one? What if I had? What would I be willing to sacrifice? What do I do when confronted with evil in the world? I will be asking these questions for sometime to come, and I will continue to push for peace in Darfur. I hope you will join me.
posted by Adam G. Gerhardstein at 5:37 PM
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