Darfur: A Christian US would stop Genocide now http://standwithdarfurwhitehouseii.blogspot.com/#116696771684651341
Moving back toward Lafayette Park - Christmas Eve
Who could doubt that a US of Christ followers (as distinct from "admirers," "exploiters" or "abusers") would have stopped Genocide in its tracks?
Who could doubt that if Jesus were alive He would stand alone if necessary with his very life to stand with Darfur against Genocide? "The good shepherd lays down his Life for his flock...."
May the Joy, Love and Peace of Christmas emerge from the rubble of the Christ-Distortion/Abuse/Perversion/Exploitation that is piled in Everests smothering and obscuring what He taught, and how He Loved.
That Darfur may be saved. That we may be saved. This His "Kingdom come." There is no more time to wait.
jay
ps: The "religious" teachings for which I claim some knowledge and expertise are those of Jesus. Yet in my limited knowledge I suspect that were we a Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Humanist, Ethical or Buddhist US we too would have stopped the Genocide and "Saved" ourselves.
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Darfur: Never Again... What? So few "rescuers!!!!"
For the first time in 2.5 years of being possessed by the Darfur Genocide I think I grasp what "Never Again" means. It means - "Never Again" so few rescuers! "Never Again" so few people that would risk their life, liberty and happiness to stop the atrocity of Genocide!
For 2.5 years now I've been possessed by the Darfur Genocide - by the call to stop it, to give it my all, to take my best shot. All that time, and I still do not fully grasp what "Never Again" means. I think I am not the only one that does not grasp the meaning.
I feel I am grasped by "Never Again" and I would like to grasp the meaning! I think that would be helpful to guide my future efforts. The following is a quick musing that just occurred to me, toward the goal of "grasping" that which has me in its grasp:
"Never Again," that phrase that has a casual residence in so many of us is ultimately a statement of price one must be willing to pay in order to be a fully functioning humane being. As I try to imagine what that continuum is I start at the easy, least costly end and work to the other end. What should I be willing to "pay," what "price" to be a full humane being. What would I want for others to risk, to "pay" if necessary to stop a Genocide being visited on my group?
OBVIOUSLY I SHOULD BE WILLING TO PAY THE PRICE OF:
* Awareness
* Postcards
* A phone call or two
* Attending a meeting or rally
DO I ALSO HAVE TO GO AS FAR AS, IF THE GENOCIDE DOES NOT STOP:
* Conveniences
* Luxuries
* Most or all leisure time
MUST I GO EVEN FURTHER AND OFFER/RISK AND EVEN PAY THE PRICE OF:
* Career
* Household
* Health
* Life
* The physical health and welfare of my immediate loved ones, indirectly through my resonsible efforts??!?!?!!
Hmmmm. Seems absurd. But risking or paying the ultimate price is what the Righteous Among Nations did - the 10,000 or so non-Jews that are recognized for heroically working to rescue Jews during the Holocaust.
For 2.5 years now I've been possessed by the Darfur Genocide - by the call to stop it, to give it my all, to take my best shot. All that time, and I still do not fully grasp what "Never Again" means. I think I am not the only one that does not grasp the meaning.
I feel I am grasped by "Never Again" and I would like to grasp the meaning! I think that would be helpful to guide my future efforts. The following is a quick musing that just occurred to me, toward the goal of "grasping" that which has me in its grasp:
"Never Again," that phrase that has a casual residence in so many of us is ultimately a statement of price one must be willing to pay in order to be a fully functioning humane being. As I try to imagine what that continuum is I start at the easy, least costly end and work to the other end. What should I be willing to "pay," what "price" to be a full humane being. What would I want for others to risk, to "pay" if necessary to stop a Genocide being visited on my group?
OBVIOUSLY I SHOULD BE WILLING TO PAY THE PRICE OF:
* Awareness
* Postcards
* A phone call or two
* Attending a meeting or rally
DO I ALSO HAVE TO GO AS FAR AS, IF THE GENOCIDE DOES NOT STOP:
* Conveniences
* Luxuries
* Most or all leisure time
MUST I GO EVEN FURTHER AND OFFER/RISK AND EVEN PAY THE PRICE OF:
* Career
* Household
* Health
* Life
* The physical health and welfare of my immediate loved ones, indirectly through my resonsible efforts??!?!?!!
Hmmmm. Seems absurd. But risking or paying the ultimate price is what the Righteous Among Nations did - the 10,000 or so non-Jews that are recognized for heroically working to rescue Jews during the Holocaust.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Darfur: US must end constructive engagement policy...
Darfur: US must end constructive engagement policy... [and we-the-citizens must end our policy of talking and not acting. DARFUR: DyingForHeroes, jay] The following is an excerpt from: U.S. Must Crank Up the Heat on Khartoum (by John Prendergast and Colin Thomas-Jensen)
The Bush administration must end its policy of constructive engagement and push for multilateral measures -- either through the Security Council or a "coalition of the willing" -- that will finally change Khartoum's calculations. These include the following:
-- Apply asset freezes and travel bans to NCP leaders responsible for atrocities in Darfur, as determined by previous UN investigations.
-- Investigate the offshore accounts of the NCP and its affiliated businesses to facilitate economic sanctions against the regime's commercial entities, the main conduits for NCP revenue used to support the Janjaweed.
-- Explore possible sanctions against the petroleum sector, including bans on investment and the provision of technical expertise and equipment.
-- Share intelligence with the International Criminal Court to break the cycle of impunity.
Tigers don't change their stripes. History demonstrates that Khartoum bends when it faces strong pressure, and it's time to punish those who orchestrate atrocity crimes in Darfur to get a muscular, mobile, U.N. force on the ground. The world is three years into this crisis and we still have not confronted the criminal cabal in Khartoum. Shame on us.
The Bush administration must end its policy of constructive engagement and push for multilateral measures -- either through the Security Council or a "coalition of the willing" -- that will finally change Khartoum's calculations. These include the following:
-- Apply asset freezes and travel bans to NCP leaders responsible for atrocities in Darfur, as determined by previous UN investigations.
-- Investigate the offshore accounts of the NCP and its affiliated businesses to facilitate economic sanctions against the regime's commercial entities, the main conduits for NCP revenue used to support the Janjaweed.
-- Explore possible sanctions against the petroleum sector, including bans on investment and the provision of technical expertise and equipment.
-- Share intelligence with the International Criminal Court to break the cycle of impunity.
Tigers don't change their stripes. History demonstrates that Khartoum bends when it faces strong pressure, and it's time to punish those who orchestrate atrocity crimes in Darfur to get a muscular, mobile, U.N. force on the ground. The world is three years into this crisis and we still have not confronted the criminal cabal in Khartoum. Shame on us.
Monday, October 16, 2006
DARFUR: Lazarus' Soup, are we obliged to spit in it? As brothers and sisters, are we morally obliged?
Lazarus (New Testament) was a person of means that stepped over those in need. Lazarus in the case of Darfur is we-the-citizens of the world. Why? We are the UN. We are the US Gov/Congress/White House. We are the EU, the AU, NATO, supporters/customers of China / India / Malasia / Russia.... No? We-the-citizens are not these governments? Gandhi's India proved that we-the-citizens are the government beyond any question, we are.
No we-the-citizens are not responsible for the Genocide in Darfur? We-the-citizens have the Power to Protect and we do not Protect Darfur. We do Starbucks, Outback, one-day-fast-from luxuries, postcards, 3 hour no-risk demonstrations… we protect our own normal life, instead.
Will History / God / Darfuries ask us, “When your other attempts failed, why didn’t you spit in our soup, we onlookers to Genocide? Why didn’t you make our murderous neglect unpleasant for us, in time? You might have saved the souls of we neglectful onlookers. You might have Saved Darfur."
Please write to me. Daily I draw on the wisdom of Gandhi, King, Jesus, Tolstoy, Deming, Dear, Zinn... as much as I can, but I am unaware that any of them directly provided answers to this question: Are we morally obligated to spit in the soup of our dear brother Lazarus?
For the first time in my life, the question posed here, "are we obliged..." pops into my head, confronts me, and I realize that prior movements did spit in the soup of the oppressors / neglecters / torturers.... The explicit goal of our activist forefathers was to antiviolently stand for their own human rights, but they did "spit in the soup" in the process as a byproduct of their actions. It became really uncomfortable to condone or practice racism against Black Americans. The activists did make normalcy ultimately unpalatable. Are we morally obliged to do the same? Why the question? Because neglect is a much more difficult opponent to fight than the lynch mob. Dr. King, Gandhi and others were explicit on this.
jay
mailto:jayjymcginley@cs.com
http://standwithdarfurwhitehouseii.blogspot.com/
ps: Having had some time to think about this today the following updates my own thoughts -
1. What is needed is to make people dissatisfied with the status quo - permitting the Genocide to continue! This is an important new insight for me. IF WE ARE NOT UPSETTING THE STATUS QUO we are not achieving the impact we need to achieve. Preferably we will make radically HEROIC LOVE overpoweringly attractive to the alternatives.
2. NOT the ideal way is any direct attempt to "spit in the soup." Indirect YES, but rather living SO HEROICALLY OUT OF LOVE that it makes our current mass, killing neglect unpalatable, HIGHLY UNPALATABLE.
3. However, is there a necessary place and time for explicitly and directly "spitting in the soup?" Hmmmmm. When? What conditions? Is this necessary now? HELP!!!!!
Jay
No we-the-citizens are not responsible for the Genocide in Darfur? We-the-citizens have the Power to Protect and we do not Protect Darfur. We do Starbucks, Outback, one-day-fast-from luxuries, postcards, 3 hour no-risk demonstrations… we protect our own normal life, instead.
Will History / God / Darfuries ask us, “When your other attempts failed, why didn’t you spit in our soup, we onlookers to Genocide? Why didn’t you make our murderous neglect unpleasant for us, in time? You might have saved the souls of we neglectful onlookers. You might have Saved Darfur."
Please write to me. Daily I draw on the wisdom of Gandhi, King, Jesus, Tolstoy, Deming, Dear, Zinn... as much as I can, but I am unaware that any of them directly provided answers to this question: Are we morally obligated to spit in the soup of our dear brother Lazarus?
For the first time in my life, the question posed here, "are we obliged..." pops into my head, confronts me, and I realize that prior movements did spit in the soup of the oppressors / neglecters / torturers.... The explicit goal of our activist forefathers was to antiviolently stand for their own human rights, but they did "spit in the soup" in the process as a byproduct of their actions. It became really uncomfortable to condone or practice racism against Black Americans. The activists did make normalcy ultimately unpalatable. Are we morally obliged to do the same? Why the question? Because neglect is a much more difficult opponent to fight than the lynch mob. Dr. King, Gandhi and others were explicit on this.
jay
mailto:jayjymcginley@cs.com
http://standwithdarfurwhitehouseii.blogspot.com/
ps: Having had some time to think about this today the following updates my own thoughts -
1. What is needed is to make people dissatisfied with the status quo - permitting the Genocide to continue! This is an important new insight for me. IF WE ARE NOT UPSETTING THE STATUS QUO we are not achieving the impact we need to achieve. Preferably we will make radically HEROIC LOVE overpoweringly attractive to the alternatives.
2. NOT the ideal way is any direct attempt to "spit in the soup." Indirect YES, but rather living SO HEROICALLY OUT OF LOVE that it makes our current mass, killing neglect unpalatable, HIGHLY UNPALATABLE.
3. However, is there a necessary place and time for explicitly and directly "spitting in the soup?" Hmmmmm. When? What conditions? Is this necessary now? HELP!!!!!
Jay
Friday, October 06, 2006
OCTOBER 5TH START to RESCUE DARFUR FAST
From a really excelent blog:
Atlantic Review
A press digest on transatlantic affairs edited by three German Fulbright Alumni
... and this specific link.
Darfur: Finally some Transatlantic Cooperation to Discuss "the Next Steps"?
Dear brothers and sisters of Atlantic Review.
Some of you seem to share my desire for us to take action beyond writing. Make no mistake, writing, blogging, analyzing have a place IN EVERY STRUGGLE. BUT, SO DO FEET ON THE STREET! And, there is no chance so far that history will write that "people did not TALK / blog / write enough about Darfur." My hope now, ALL OF MY HOPE NOW at this stage is for feet on the street. Currently, history WILL WRITE that all we did was... TALK. Nero fiddled while Rome burned....
OCTOBER 5th STAND (Students Taking Action for Darfur) is organizing a 1 day. OK, LET'S TURN IT INTO THE START, T-H-E S-T-A-R-T of a worldwide FAST, that we stay on until the GENOCIDE IS ENDING, NOT BEFORE. Is this too radical!?!?!?!!? Does Genocide warrant less?!?!!!? Is this an OVERREACTION TO GENOCIDE? YES, we would almost certainly fail in the attempt. YES, if we got it off the ground and 1,000's participated the effort might fail. SO WHAT!?!?!? As your uniquely brilliant and helpful Alfred Adler said, "Courage is doing what needs to be done, whether or not you know you will succeed."
Some loose FUNCTIONAL AND OPERATIONAL patterning after the TroopsHomeFast.org effort could be executed.
Full time activists like me - water only. People in school or holding "normal" jobs - 1,000 calories. Equal. COMMITTED. PROPORTIONAL RESPONSE. UNEQUIVOCAL MANDATE. JUST. SOLIDARITY. WORTHY.
STUPID IDEA YOU SAY? Two responses. 1. "If at first the idea is not absurd, it has no hope," Albert Einstein; 2. GIVE ME A BETTER IDEA. I'll run with it, even if you don't. I'm going to do something, my best shot. This global Fast idea is my best so far.
OUR YARDSTICK FOR MEASUREING SUCH IDEAS MUST NOT BE "WILL IT WORK." THIS IS THE QUESTION OF BYSTANDERS. THE QUESTION OF THE COMMITTED HUMANE BEING IS, "WHAT IS MY BEST SHOT, MY BEST CHANCE IN THIS SITUATION, TO SAVE AS MUCH OF MY DARFUR FAMILY AS POSSIBLE."
For more on this idea: DARFUR Dying for Heroes
To join the FAST-TILL-IT STOPS with us: JOIN RESCUE-DARFUR-FAST-TILL-IT-STOPS
Atlantic Review
A press digest on transatlantic affairs edited by three German Fulbright Alumni
... and this specific link.
Darfur: Finally some Transatlantic Cooperation to Discuss "the Next Steps"?
Dear brothers and sisters of Atlantic Review.
Some of you seem to share my desire for us to take action beyond writing. Make no mistake, writing, blogging, analyzing have a place IN EVERY STRUGGLE. BUT, SO DO FEET ON THE STREET! And, there is no chance so far that history will write that "people did not TALK / blog / write enough about Darfur." My hope now, ALL OF MY HOPE NOW at this stage is for feet on the street. Currently, history WILL WRITE that all we did was... TALK. Nero fiddled while Rome burned....
OCTOBER 5th STAND (Students Taking Action for Darfur) is organizing a 1 day. OK, LET'S TURN IT INTO THE START, T-H-E S-T-A-R-T of a worldwide FAST, that we stay on until the GENOCIDE IS ENDING, NOT BEFORE. Is this too radical!?!?!?!!? Does Genocide warrant less?!?!!!? Is this an OVERREACTION TO GENOCIDE? YES, we would almost certainly fail in the attempt. YES, if we got it off the ground and 1,000's participated the effort might fail. SO WHAT!?!?!? As your uniquely brilliant and helpful Alfred Adler said, "Courage is doing what needs to be done, whether or not you know you will succeed."
Some loose FUNCTIONAL AND OPERATIONAL patterning after the TroopsHomeFast.org effort could be executed.
Full time activists like me - water only. People in school or holding "normal" jobs - 1,000 calories. Equal. COMMITTED. PROPORTIONAL RESPONSE. UNEQUIVOCAL MANDATE. JUST. SOLIDARITY. WORTHY.
STUPID IDEA YOU SAY? Two responses. 1. "If at first the idea is not absurd, it has no hope," Albert Einstein; 2. GIVE ME A BETTER IDEA. I'll run with it, even if you don't. I'm going to do something, my best shot. This global Fast idea is my best so far.
OUR YARDSTICK FOR MEASUREING SUCH IDEAS MUST NOT BE "WILL IT WORK." THIS IS THE QUESTION OF BYSTANDERS. THE QUESTION OF THE COMMITTED HUMANE BEING IS, "WHAT IS MY BEST SHOT, MY BEST CHANCE IN THIS SITUATION, TO SAVE AS MUCH OF MY DARFUR FAMILY AS POSSIBLE."
For more on this idea: DARFUR Dying for Heroes
To join the FAST-TILL-IT STOPS with us: JOIN RESCUE-DARFUR-FAST-TILL-IT-STOPS
Sunday, October 01, 2006
IT IS TIME TO OFFICIALLY ABANDON DARFUR
Why not. Because until we-the-people admit that we are failing to stop it, the game is over.
And unless we get on with finding enough LOCAL HEROES here to save them, DARFUR IS DEAD.
DARFUR is Dying for Heroes
And unless we get on with finding enough LOCAL HEROES here to save them, DARFUR IS DEAD.
DARFUR is Dying for Heroes
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Thursday, September 28, 2006
DARFUR: THERE IS ONLY ONE SUCCESS POSSIBLE
Tough day today. Hmm.
I want to see how to stop the genocide. Not a fantasy, I don't want to see a fantasy, but a real way forward. Am I frustrated? That's irrelevant. Am I confused? Yes. Am I unclear what I am called to do? How? When? Yes. Funny, I am finally clear what we-the-people are called to do - Rescue Darfur Fast. But me? :-)
A massive Rescue Darfur Fast! Yes, massive, that would do it; that would end the genocide. How massive? MASSIVE.
To about 1000 folks, all of the activist community, bloggers and College/Univ Newspaper folks I've now sent multiple teasers on the Rescue Darfur Fast idea. MULTIPLE in the recent 10 days. Less than 20 to 40 web hits or emails have resulted directly from this. This is a very bad indicator. Aggressive promotion of Rescue Darfur Fast by a team of one to four of us could be the spark, if there were dry kindling and logs around. The deafening silence to these teasers suggests to me that the wood is very, very wet, still.
Jan Pronk today, pretty much out of the blue, the lead UN Envoy to Sudan was extremely negative on the likelihood of UN Peacekeepers. An honest, informed voice, or cowardice, lack of vision, and fatigue speaking? A leader? A "father" of Darfur?
I am tempted to go the direction of Pronk. No. His is not realism, but defeatism. A fine line, but he crossed it. Prank's attitude is not the attitude that won Independence for America, Independence for India, Freedom from Apartheid for South Africa; that developed the microchip, that put man on the moon....
Am I discouraged? That is irrelevant. No, I am not. Confused? Yes, I am.
"Our Father calls us to be Faithful, not Successful" comes to mind.
"Full effort is full success," Gandhi, comes to mind.
There is only one success - "Do unto others ALL..." comes to mind. ONLY ONE SUCCESS is possible in life; is possible in being confronted with the Evil of Genocide. DO UNTO OTHERS ALL THAT YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU. And, there is only ONE FAILURE POSSIBLE. To do less than "all."
"Hope is lost, only if and when we quit," comes to mind.
Is the ultimate goal to stop the genocide in Darfur? Our Father, History, will not ask you or me if we did. Our Father, History, will ask us how we behaved in the face of genocide; what we taught our brothers and sisters about how to live life in the face of such evil. Our Father, History will want to know if the model we fashioned and provided, was a moral beacon, a lantern, something promising for the future.
Darfur Genocide is the symptom, not the disease. Inhumanity is the disease. The only hope is that we spend our lives each day, every day, being humanity incarnate, overwhelming the inhumanity with our humanity. Being superior antiviolence, to the world's violence.
Hmmmm. There is only one success possible in life. Do unto others ALL.... Only one failure possible in Life, and in the face of genocide.
Jay
I want to see how to stop the genocide. Not a fantasy, I don't want to see a fantasy, but a real way forward. Am I frustrated? That's irrelevant. Am I confused? Yes. Am I unclear what I am called to do? How? When? Yes. Funny, I am finally clear what we-the-people are called to do - Rescue Darfur Fast. But me? :-)
A massive Rescue Darfur Fast! Yes, massive, that would do it; that would end the genocide. How massive? MASSIVE.
To about 1000 folks, all of the activist community, bloggers and College/Univ Newspaper folks I've now sent multiple teasers on the Rescue Darfur Fast idea. MULTIPLE in the recent 10 days. Less than 20 to 40 web hits or emails have resulted directly from this. This is a very bad indicator. Aggressive promotion of Rescue Darfur Fast by a team of one to four of us could be the spark, if there were dry kindling and logs around. The deafening silence to these teasers suggests to me that the wood is very, very wet, still.
Jan Pronk today, pretty much out of the blue, the lead UN Envoy to Sudan was extremely negative on the likelihood of UN Peacekeepers. An honest, informed voice, or cowardice, lack of vision, and fatigue speaking? A leader? A "father" of Darfur?
I am tempted to go the direction of Pronk. No. His is not realism, but defeatism. A fine line, but he crossed it. Prank's attitude is not the attitude that won Independence for America, Independence for India, Freedom from Apartheid for South Africa; that developed the microchip, that put man on the moon....
Am I discouraged? That is irrelevant. No, I am not. Confused? Yes, I am.
"Our Father calls us to be Faithful, not Successful" comes to mind.
"Full effort is full success," Gandhi, comes to mind.
There is only one success - "Do unto others ALL..." comes to mind. ONLY ONE SUCCESS is possible in life; is possible in being confronted with the Evil of Genocide. DO UNTO OTHERS ALL THAT YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU. And, there is only ONE FAILURE POSSIBLE. To do less than "all."
"Hope is lost, only if and when we quit," comes to mind.
Is the ultimate goal to stop the genocide in Darfur? Our Father, History, will not ask you or me if we did. Our Father, History, will ask us how we behaved in the face of genocide; what we taught our brothers and sisters about how to live life in the face of such evil. Our Father, History will want to know if the model we fashioned and provided, was a moral beacon, a lantern, something promising for the future.
Darfur Genocide is the symptom, not the disease. Inhumanity is the disease. The only hope is that we spend our lives each day, every day, being humanity incarnate, overwhelming the inhumanity with our humanity. Being superior antiviolence, to the world's violence.
Hmmmm. There is only one success possible in life. Do unto others ALL.... Only one failure possible in Life, and in the face of genocide.
Jay
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
DARFUR/JAY: "APOLOGY ACCEPTED"
From one of the very kind emails I have received, from someone I am not clear that I have met, or know (forgive my dreadful memory?):
Jay,
Your sincere apology should be enough to calm the most righteous indignation (reference the two posts this blog: DARFUR, URGENT: What would Rachel Corrie or Steve Beko start THIS WEEK? and then JAY WOUNDED. LEAVING DARFUR STRUGGLE. ) You used what you saw as a heroic act to motivate those of us wringing our hands in safety. Keep fighting, Jay. Your words and actions are needed now more than ever.
Sincerely, xxxxx xxxxxxx
Jay's reply today:
Dear Sister,
What a lovely, loving note.
Last night after watching an Academy Award winning documentary American Dream about a failed strike attempt at a midwest Hormel plant, we noticed an "added feature," "Children of the Night" it was called. It was a brief documentary of footage from among the 1,600,000 children exterminated in the Holocaust. I am so sad, distraught over our pitifully timid and cowardly response to Darfur. Oh my God, where is the outrage? Where is the intolerance of one day more, one hour more of genocide??!?!!?!?!?!? What type of creatures are we? I want to explode, not AT anyone, but I want/need to be a much louder scream than yet I have been, LET'S STOP THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The world should have stopped, EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE STOPPED THEIR NORMAL LIVES IN THEIR TRACKS TO STOP THE HOLOCAUST. Anything less is a heinous insult to human dignity and worth. "This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop. I don’t think it’s an extremist thing to do anymore."
My God, why don't we see this?
I'm quite sobbing uncontrollably right now. I'm so confused. I just do not understand us.
I think that we should begin, BEGIN a worldwide all out FAST on October 5th, the day that STAND is planning a one day abstinence from snacks. One day abstaining from snacks. Oh my God. What about those 1,600,000 children from the Holocaust? OCTOBER 5TH "START to RESCUE DARFUR FAST". Open ended. We eat when the Genocide is Stopping, NOT BEFORE! Would history say this was TOO RADICAL? TOO MUCH? AN OVERREACTION TO 4,000,000 BEING EXTERMINATED? Full time activists like me - water only. People in school or holding "normal" jobs - 1,000 calories. Equal. COMMITTED. PROPORTIONAL RESPONSE. UNEQUIVOCAL MANDATE. JUST. SOLIDARITY. WORTHY.
I think I would pay any price to wake us up. But I am losing hope for us. I have no idea what to do, personally. Oh activities? We can get lost in those forever for Darfur. I mean, proportional response not to make ME feel better, but to STOP THE GENOCIDE NOW.
Brother Jay
ps: You've very much helped me at a difficult time. I'll post this on the blog in such a way as to remove your ID. Thank you. www.standwithdarfurwhitehouseii.blogspot.com
Jay,
Your sincere apology should be enough to calm the most righteous indignation (reference the two posts this blog: DARFUR, URGENT: What would Rachel Corrie or Steve Beko start THIS WEEK? and then JAY WOUNDED. LEAVING DARFUR STRUGGLE. ) You used what you saw as a heroic act to motivate those of us wringing our hands in safety. Keep fighting, Jay. Your words and actions are needed now more than ever.
Sincerely, xxxxx xxxxxxx
Jay's reply today:
Dear Sister,
What a lovely, loving note.
Last night after watching an Academy Award winning documentary American Dream about a failed strike attempt at a midwest Hormel plant, we noticed an "added feature," "Children of the Night" it was called. It was a brief documentary of footage from among the 1,600,000 children exterminated in the Holocaust. I am so sad, distraught over our pitifully timid and cowardly response to Darfur. Oh my God, where is the outrage? Where is the intolerance of one day more, one hour more of genocide??!?!!?!?!?!? What type of creatures are we? I want to explode, not AT anyone, but I want/need to be a much louder scream than yet I have been, LET'S STOP THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The world should have stopped, EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE STOPPED THEIR NORMAL LIVES IN THEIR TRACKS TO STOP THE HOLOCAUST. Anything less is a heinous insult to human dignity and worth. "This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop. I don’t think it’s an extremist thing to do anymore."
My God, why don't we see this?
I'm quite sobbing uncontrollably right now. I'm so confused. I just do not understand us.
I think that we should begin, BEGIN a worldwide all out FAST on October 5th, the day that STAND is planning a one day abstinence from snacks. One day abstaining from snacks. Oh my God. What about those 1,600,000 children from the Holocaust? OCTOBER 5TH "START to RESCUE DARFUR FAST". Open ended. We eat when the Genocide is Stopping, NOT BEFORE! Would history say this was TOO RADICAL? TOO MUCH? AN OVERREACTION TO 4,000,000 BEING EXTERMINATED? Full time activists like me - water only. People in school or holding "normal" jobs - 1,000 calories. Equal. COMMITTED. PROPORTIONAL RESPONSE. UNEQUIVOCAL MANDATE. JUST. SOLIDARITY. WORTHY.
I think I would pay any price to wake us up. But I am losing hope for us. I have no idea what to do, personally. Oh activities? We can get lost in those forever for Darfur. I mean, proportional response not to make ME feel better, but to STOP THE GENOCIDE NOW.
Brother Jay
ps: You've very much helped me at a difficult time. I'll post this on the blog in such a way as to remove your ID. Thank you. www.standwithdarfurwhitehouseii.blogspot.com
Friday, September 22, 2006
WE ARE TALKING DARFUR TO DEATH
From a Washington Post online discussion: Our Question
Posted at 12:10 AM ET, 09/22/2006
Should regional solidarity be allowed to trump human rights needs? What could be done to pull away support from the Sudanese regime and enable UN troops to enter?
Jay's Response:
This question, the one you have posed above, and those like it (the only kind in the news) are central to why the genocide is not ending!!! YOU ARE CAUSING THE DEATH OF 4 million with such questions. Why? Because such questions are a profound distraction from the problem!!!! Don't blow me off yet. Hear me. Please.
Harvard's Samantha Power's "Problem from Hell," my reading of it anyway: THE BATTLE TO STOP GENOCIDE HAS ALWAYS BEEN LOST ON THE FIELD OF US PUBLIC OPINION... THE US PEOPLE HAVE NEVER STOOD UP!!!! Duh!!! And questions like this (yours above) continue to distract attention from SOLVING THIS PROBLEM - getting us to stand up! We are not standing up! Instead, we are sitting around our computer screens, sipping our Starbuck's in smug complacency, enjoying playing "State Department," or "UN" in conversations like this.... Doesn't anyone else think of the M word in this context? What we need to do is get off of our butts, and get our bodies, get our "skin in the game!" No?
We the people, press, activist community have NO MORAL RIGHT TO BE TELLING ANYONE WHAT TO DO, UNTIL WE STEP UP TO THE PLATE! Sure, we have the legal right, the constitutional right. So what? MORAL RIGHT. Lipservice is what we are paying so far! Who currently is paying more than lip service? Who is fighting with the real commitment that we've seen before: Civil Rights movement, Suffrage, stopping Vietnam war.... Ok, Eric Reeve, Samantha did, maybe John Prendergast did, probably a dozen others are now, BUT NO ONE CAN SEE IT!
I am reminded, to my horror, of All Quiet on the Western Front - of the townspeople fanning the flame so that OTHERS could go get slaughtered in a hopeless WWI.
Make no mistake, I THINK WE-THE-PEOPLE, THE CITIZENS OF THE WORLD SHOULD BE GIVING OUR LIVES if that is what it takes TO ESTABLISH OUR POLITICAL MANDATE LOUD ENOUGH, AND FAST ENOUGH to execute BOTH aspects posed by your question: Maximal political pressure (targeted sanctions, ICC, travel restrictions AND Troops on the ground now (with or WITHOUT Bashir's acceptance) AND solemn, explicit proclamation to the world, NOW, that THE WEST WILL NOT TOUCH CHINA'S PREFERENTIAL ACCESS TO SUDAN OIL. Duh. But BOTH will happen - Bashir's acquiesce AND troops on the ground - and they will happen instantly that we pay the price - we the people of the US and world. The policy options are NOT why Darfuries are dying. LACK OF WILL ON THE PART OF WE THE PEOPLE is why they are dying. It is so obvious.
In summary? We, including we in this dialog, are guys in bar Monday Morning Quarterbacking - at the expense of 4,000,000 being exterminated in Darfur. We are spectators, Monday Quarterbacks. WE NEED TO GET ON THE FIELD OF PLAY WITH OUR BODIES.
Gentlemen and ladies of the press, in the name of God, point the finger at we-the-people. PLEASE. Help us wake up and get us out of the stands as spectators, and onto the playing field. Please. We are headed toward extermination rates of 25,000 per week (six 911's per week.)
Jay McGinleyDARFUR VIGIL DAY 119 (currently in NYC); 56 DAYS HUNGER STRIKE since July 4, 2006 (water only) www.standwithdarfurwhitehouseii.blogspot.com
Posted at 12:10 AM ET, 09/22/2006
Should regional solidarity be allowed to trump human rights needs? What could be done to pull away support from the Sudanese regime and enable UN troops to enter?
Jay's Response:
This question, the one you have posed above, and those like it (the only kind in the news) are central to why the genocide is not ending!!! YOU ARE CAUSING THE DEATH OF 4 million with such questions. Why? Because such questions are a profound distraction from the problem!!!! Don't blow me off yet. Hear me. Please.
Harvard's Samantha Power's "Problem from Hell," my reading of it anyway: THE BATTLE TO STOP GENOCIDE HAS ALWAYS BEEN LOST ON THE FIELD OF US PUBLIC OPINION... THE US PEOPLE HAVE NEVER STOOD UP!!!! Duh!!! And questions like this (yours above) continue to distract attention from SOLVING THIS PROBLEM - getting us to stand up! We are not standing up! Instead, we are sitting around our computer screens, sipping our Starbuck's in smug complacency, enjoying playing "State Department," or "UN" in conversations like this.... Doesn't anyone else think of the M word in this context? What we need to do is get off of our butts, and get our bodies, get our "skin in the game!" No?
We the people, press, activist community have NO MORAL RIGHT TO BE TELLING ANYONE WHAT TO DO, UNTIL WE STEP UP TO THE PLATE! Sure, we have the legal right, the constitutional right. So what? MORAL RIGHT. Lipservice is what we are paying so far! Who currently is paying more than lip service? Who is fighting with the real commitment that we've seen before: Civil Rights movement, Suffrage, stopping Vietnam war.... Ok, Eric Reeve, Samantha did, maybe John Prendergast did, probably a dozen others are now, BUT NO ONE CAN SEE IT!
I am reminded, to my horror, of All Quiet on the Western Front - of the townspeople fanning the flame so that OTHERS could go get slaughtered in a hopeless WWI.
Make no mistake, I THINK WE-THE-PEOPLE, THE CITIZENS OF THE WORLD SHOULD BE GIVING OUR LIVES if that is what it takes TO ESTABLISH OUR POLITICAL MANDATE LOUD ENOUGH, AND FAST ENOUGH to execute BOTH aspects posed by your question: Maximal political pressure (targeted sanctions, ICC, travel restrictions AND Troops on the ground now (with or WITHOUT Bashir's acceptance) AND solemn, explicit proclamation to the world, NOW, that THE WEST WILL NOT TOUCH CHINA'S PREFERENTIAL ACCESS TO SUDAN OIL. Duh. But BOTH will happen - Bashir's acquiesce AND troops on the ground - and they will happen instantly that we pay the price - we the people of the US and world. The policy options are NOT why Darfuries are dying. LACK OF WILL ON THE PART OF WE THE PEOPLE is why they are dying. It is so obvious.
In summary? We, including we in this dialog, are guys in bar Monday Morning Quarterbacking - at the expense of 4,000,000 being exterminated in Darfur. We are spectators, Monday Quarterbacks. WE NEED TO GET ON THE FIELD OF PLAY WITH OUR BODIES.
Gentlemen and ladies of the press, in the name of God, point the finger at we-the-people. PLEASE. Help us wake up and get us out of the stands as spectators, and onto the playing field. Please. We are headed toward extermination rates of 25,000 per week (six 911's per week.)
Jay McGinleyDARFUR VIGIL DAY 119 (currently in NYC); 56 DAYS HUNGER STRIKE since July 4, 2006 (water only) www.standwithdarfurwhitehouseii.blogspot.com
JAY WOUNDED. LEAVING DARFUR STRUGGLE.
Self-inflicted wounds.
To many, Rachel Corrie is a profoundly controversial figure. I did not know that yesterday. I could have. Maybe I should have known. But I did not.
To me, for me, her Truth is Simple: everyone, EVERYONE IS FAMILY, IMMEDIATE FAMILY, PART OF OUR BODY, EXACTLY, TOTALLY. Everyone is to be treasured. Israelis, Arabs, Christians, Muslims, white, black.... EVERY VICTIM IS TO BE SHIELDED WITH YOUR OWN BODY. ANY VICTIM. ANYONE'S AGONY IS TO BE EVERYONE'S AGONY, UNTIL WE MAKE IT STOP FOR US ALL. "This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop. I don’t think it’s an extremist thing to do anymore." That is how it is with me.
But today I see what yesterday, Thursday, I did not. There has been a political firestorm around Rachel that people have created to help polarize and hate each other. In stepping into this I have unknowingly boobytrapped myself as an enormous potential distraction from whatever cowardly, minuscule efforts to Save Darfur that we might otherwise mount.
I expect that I will immediately withdraw from the activities and position I have been fulfilling to solitary fast and prayer, for as long as I am able.
I will continue to pray that we morbidly cowardly brothers and sisters here in the US and worldwide shake off our cowardice and enter the antiviolent WAR FOR DARFUR; that the cancer that has eaten away our humanity, eaten away our body of which Darfur is a part, is CURED. That we reclaim our body, all of it, treasure it, PROTECT IT, and heal it. THAT WE RESCUE AND RESTORE DARFUR, NOW.
Good by, Brother Jay
To many, Rachel Corrie is a profoundly controversial figure. I did not know that yesterday. I could have. Maybe I should have known. But I did not.
To me, for me, her Truth is Simple: everyone, EVERYONE IS FAMILY, IMMEDIATE FAMILY, PART OF OUR BODY, EXACTLY, TOTALLY. Everyone is to be treasured. Israelis, Arabs, Christians, Muslims, white, black.... EVERY VICTIM IS TO BE SHIELDED WITH YOUR OWN BODY. ANY VICTIM. ANYONE'S AGONY IS TO BE EVERYONE'S AGONY, UNTIL WE MAKE IT STOP FOR US ALL. "This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop. I don’t think it’s an extremist thing to do anymore." That is how it is with me.
But today I see what yesterday, Thursday, I did not. There has been a political firestorm around Rachel that people have created to help polarize and hate each other. In stepping into this I have unknowingly boobytrapped myself as an enormous potential distraction from whatever cowardly, minuscule efforts to Save Darfur that we might otherwise mount.
I expect that I will immediately withdraw from the activities and position I have been fulfilling to solitary fast and prayer, for as long as I am able.
I will continue to pray that we morbidly cowardly brothers and sisters here in the US and worldwide shake off our cowardice and enter the antiviolent WAR FOR DARFUR; that the cancer that has eaten away our humanity, eaten away our body of which Darfur is a part, is CURED. That we reclaim our body, all of it, treasure it, PROTECT IT, and heal it. THAT WE RESCUE AND RESTORE DARFUR, NOW.
Good by, Brother Jay
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
DARFUR, URGENT: What would Rachel Corrie or Steve Beko start THIS WEEK?
Young Rachel Corrie saw a bulldozer intentionally bearing down on the house of a family, a family she probably never knew. She got in front of that bulldozer, between the bulldozer and the house, between the threat, and the innocents. "This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop. I don’t think it’s an extremist thing to do anymore." DARFUR GENOCIDE. WE-CITIZENS SITTING IN COMFORT AND SAFETY IN THE FACE OF GENOCIDE, "THIS HAS TO STOP." (http://www.criticalconcern.com/rachelcorrie.html.)
We need to get between what is killing Darfur (Bashir's performance and the nonperformance of we-the-people, the world's citizens) - and our children, sisters and brothers in Darfur. Now. As of now we are not: SEPT 17TH ACTIVISM: AWESOME! BUT NOT STOPPING GENOCIDE IN DARFUR. How do we do that? How do we make it happen? What would a sufficient "wake up" look like? IF SOMEONE HAS THIS ALREADY STARTED, LET ME KNOW. I'll join you, or even back out if that is best.
I am deciding what I will do next, what I expect to be my final attempt to spark the Rescue of Darfur by waking up sufficient numbers of we humans in time, converting us from spectators, critics and activists-of-convenience into antiviolent warriors (think Civil Rights struggle) of profound courage, wisdom, tenacity and effectiveness; utilizing to the max the few weeks, days and seconds that our Darfur family has left.
What would Rachel Corrie start THIS WEEK? This question strikes me as the way to approach the task of deciding. The way to focus the mind to come up with the appropriate, proportional response of greatest chance - THE BEST AIMED "HAIL MARY" PASS.
Rachel Corrie stood in front of a bulldozer about to destroy the house of people she did not know. (http://www.criticalconcern.com/rachelcorrie.html). Would a different role model help you more? How about Steve Beko (South Africa, movie, Denzel), a young Gandhi, a young Nelson Mandella, an antivioloent Rambo, Deitrich Bonhoeffer, John Q (from the Denzel Washington movie)...? You get the idea. Think of your own role model APPROPRIATE to this situation.
LET’S JOIN TOGETHER IN THIS QUANDARY, before it is too late, please: Send me, or post, your ideas (http://standwithdarfurwhitehouseii.blogspot.com/). Now. I expect to embark on whatever best plan by early next week at the latest, with anyone that wants to join together.
A CONSTRAINT: Suggestions must centrally embrace this notion of the problem from Samantha Power's inspired, Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "Problem from Hell" (and I paraphrase AND take license): THE BATTLE TO STOP GENOCIDE HAS ALWAYS BEEN LOST ON THE FIELD OF PUBLIC OPINION. THE PEOPLE [WE THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD]... HAVE NEVER STOOD UP SUFFICIENTLY TO STOP IT.HUNCH: The plan should involve leveraging STAND's Oct 5th Fast to make it into the END OF THE GENOCIDE, the START of a WORLDWIDE FAST UNTIL DARFUR GENOCIDE IS ENDING. One-day only by all participants is too-little-too-late. A one day fast is NOT what the world's response to the Holocaust, the extermination of 6,000,000 Jews lacked. Not by many orders of magnitude. Death rates are climbing toward 25,000 per week in Darfur, NOW. We must be REALISTIC. Code Pink's "Troops Home Fast" could be a model (www.troopshomefast.org). Make STAND's October 5th the START? THAT COULD DO IT.
But, WE NEED EVEN BETTER, MUCH BETTER SUGGESTIONS and specific ideas for approach and execution than I am hinting at.
RESPOND. PLEASE. Deadline: FRIDAY, 9/22/06, because THERE IS NO MORE T-I-M-E. (For those of you that just want to watch, and have a good laugh at my frantic gyrations, enjoy.)
What would Rachel Corrie start THIS WEEK?
Jay McGinley
DARFUR VIGIL DAY 118 (now in NYC); 56 DAYS HUNGER STRIKE since July 4, 2006; Jay McGinley (jymcginley@cs.com) 484-356-6243
Monday, September 18, 2006
SEPT 17TH ACTIVISM: AWESOME! BUT NOT STOPPING GENOCIDE IN DARFUR
It only took just one failed component, one failed component out of millions that painstaking effort had made right, to cause the searing tragedy of the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion. You'll remember that for Challenger it was a faulty "O ring."
The contributions of the many that led to a brilliantly executed September 17th series of worldwide events is something we all should humbly honor, praise, reverence and express our deep respect and gratitude for. I do. It was awesome. And a handful of truly heroic efforts took place - promoting/filling busses from Pittsburgh, Boston, Ohio, Washington...; logistics; PR.... Thank you and God bless your commitment. And your accomplishments including front page coverage in the New York Times, appointment of a special envoy to Darfur as desrcibed in Bush to Name Envoy for Darfur Washington Post, By Colum Lynch and Glenn Kessler Staff Writers Tuesday, September 19, 2006; and finally, a spotlight on China, for example The Genocide Test, Editorial, Washington Post.
What the September 17th teams worldwide did is absolutely necessary! But there is a faulty "O ring" in the Campaign to Save Darfur. SEPTEMBER 17TH, AND THE FOLLOW-ON EVENTS CONTEMPLATED AND PLANNED WILL NOT STOP THE GENOCIDE. And I have yet to have anyone prominently involved with the Darfur movement disagree. And I've asked them. And I've received responses.
A crucial component is missing; a component that has been essential for every previous social-change movement. Stopping Genocide requires Monumental Social-Change - NEVER has genocide been stopped. N-E-V-E-R. Never. Not Rwanda, Cambodia, Kurds, Serbrinka, not 6,000,000 Jews.... Kosovo was far too late addressed to some degree.
What is profoundly missing is a Core Group of Leaders that anyone, EVERYONE SEES is heroically putting their skin in the game, standing up for, getting in harms way for, SACRIFICING PERSONALLY for Darfur. Name major social change that has ever come without this. Civil Rights? Apartheid? Stopping Vietnam War? Suffrage? IT HAS NEVER HAPPENED.
Unmistakable-Sacrificial-Leadership-visible-to-the-masses is the spark plug; the inspiration; the moral clarity; THE PROOF OF IMPORTANCE THAT INSPIRES COMMITTED ACTION IN OTHERS. Leadership of this kind, in sufficient quantity is - the price to Save Darfur. Until the "price" is paid, the genocide will not stop, no matter what else we do.
We can do everything else right (and these are NECESSARY): advertising, PR, rallies, celebrity participation, strategy, Sudan Envoys... but without the ignition, without the spark-plug we've got our "O ring," our efforts will crash in defeat, and 4,000,000 family members in Darfur are exterminated.
I have been begging for two years for such effort:
9/23/04: http://platform.blogs.com/passionofthepresent/2004/09/radical_commitm.html
10/17/04: http://platform.blogs.com/passionofthepresent/2004/10/jay_mcginley_ai.html
8/11/05: http://rescuerestoredarfur.blogspot.com/2005/08/hunger-strike-day-6-pioneers-must-pay.html
8/14/05: http://platform.blogs.com/passionofthepresent/2005/08/the_latest_from_1.html
7/11/06: http://standwithdarfurwhitehouseii.blogspot.com/2006/07/call-to-battle-launch-all-out.html
8/16/06: http://rescuerestoredarfur.blogspot.com/2005/08/hunger-strike-day-12-enough-radicals.html
8/22/05: http://platform.blogs.com/passionofthepresent/2005/07/jay_mcginley_hu.html
So Jay, does all this make you right? What matters is: 1. Might it be correct?; 2. That YOU decide, correctly, in time. As Reverend Gloria said in NYC on Sunday, “It’s about T-I-M-E.”
Rosa Parks was a seamstress. Steven Beko was from no organization. Ghandi was a young lawyer and the wave upon wave of fellow leaders were from all walks of life. Dr. King a brilliant minister and many co-leaders were uneducated laborers. King said, "Anyone can be great because anyone can serve." Gandhi said, 'The frailest, old crippled body can be just as powerful as any head of state."
BUT THE MOST LIKELY SOURCE FOR THE LEADERSHIP CORE IS STUDENTS. This has been true in every movement. And if the students of this country do not rise up for humanity and justice, NOW, there is no hope. THEY must form the core of our leadership. We adults in the NGOs, Churches, Synagogues, Mosques HAVE MADE OUR POSITION CLEAR. WE WILL NOT GET IN HARMS WAY FOR DARFUR.
Someone(s) cried out about the "O ring" long, long before the Challenger exploded. I'm sure of it. He/She/They were blown off as troublemaker, renegade, lone ranger, loner, outsider, not-a-team-player.... The Challenger exploded. All that is left are, regrets.
The contributions of the many that led to a brilliantly executed September 17th series of worldwide events is something we all should humbly honor, praise, reverence and express our deep respect and gratitude for. I do. It was awesome. And a handful of truly heroic efforts took place - promoting/filling busses from Pittsburgh, Boston, Ohio, Washington...; logistics; PR.... Thank you and God bless your commitment. And your accomplishments including front page coverage in the New York Times, appointment of a special envoy to Darfur as desrcibed in Bush to Name Envoy for Darfur Washington Post, By Colum Lynch and Glenn Kessler Staff Writers Tuesday, September 19, 2006; and finally, a spotlight on China, for example The Genocide Test, Editorial, Washington Post.
What the September 17th teams worldwide did is absolutely necessary! But there is a faulty "O ring" in the Campaign to Save Darfur. SEPTEMBER 17TH, AND THE FOLLOW-ON EVENTS CONTEMPLATED AND PLANNED WILL NOT STOP THE GENOCIDE. And I have yet to have anyone prominently involved with the Darfur movement disagree. And I've asked them. And I've received responses.
A crucial component is missing; a component that has been essential for every previous social-change movement. Stopping Genocide requires Monumental Social-Change - NEVER has genocide been stopped. N-E-V-E-R. Never. Not Rwanda, Cambodia, Kurds, Serbrinka, not 6,000,000 Jews.... Kosovo was far too late addressed to some degree.
What is profoundly missing is a Core Group of Leaders that anyone, EVERYONE SEES is heroically putting their skin in the game, standing up for, getting in harms way for, SACRIFICING PERSONALLY for Darfur. Name major social change that has ever come without this. Civil Rights? Apartheid? Stopping Vietnam War? Suffrage? IT HAS NEVER HAPPENED.
Unmistakable-Sacrificial-Leadership-visible-to-the-masses is the spark plug; the inspiration; the moral clarity; THE PROOF OF IMPORTANCE THAT INSPIRES COMMITTED ACTION IN OTHERS. Leadership of this kind, in sufficient quantity is - the price to Save Darfur. Until the "price" is paid, the genocide will not stop, no matter what else we do.
We can do everything else right (and these are NECESSARY): advertising, PR, rallies, celebrity participation, strategy, Sudan Envoys... but without the ignition, without the spark-plug we've got our "O ring," our efforts will crash in defeat, and 4,000,000 family members in Darfur are exterminated.
I have been begging for two years for such effort:
9/23/04: http://platform.blogs.com/passionofthepresent/2004/09/radical_commitm.html
10/17/04: http://platform.blogs.com/passionofthepresent/2004/10/jay_mcginley_ai.html
8/11/05: http://rescuerestoredarfur.blogspot.com/2005/08/hunger-strike-day-6-pioneers-must-pay.html
8/14/05: http://platform.blogs.com/passionofthepresent/2005/08/the_latest_from_1.html
7/11/06: http://standwithdarfurwhitehouseii.blogspot.com/2006/07/call-to-battle-launch-all-out.html
8/16/06: http://rescuerestoredarfur.blogspot.com/2005/08/hunger-strike-day-12-enough-radicals.html
8/22/05: http://platform.blogs.com/passionofthepresent/2005/07/jay_mcginley_hu.html
So Jay, does all this make you right? What matters is: 1. Might it be correct?; 2. That YOU decide, correctly, in time. As Reverend Gloria said in NYC on Sunday, “It’s about T-I-M-E.”
Rosa Parks was a seamstress. Steven Beko was from no organization. Ghandi was a young lawyer and the wave upon wave of fellow leaders were from all walks of life. Dr. King a brilliant minister and many co-leaders were uneducated laborers. King said, "Anyone can be great because anyone can serve." Gandhi said, 'The frailest, old crippled body can be just as powerful as any head of state."
BUT THE MOST LIKELY SOURCE FOR THE LEADERSHIP CORE IS STUDENTS. This has been true in every movement. And if the students of this country do not rise up for humanity and justice, NOW, there is no hope. THEY must form the core of our leadership. We adults in the NGOs, Churches, Synagogues, Mosques HAVE MADE OUR POSITION CLEAR. WE WILL NOT GET IN HARMS WAY FOR DARFUR.
Someone(s) cried out about the "O ring" long, long before the Challenger exploded. I'm sure of it. He/She/They were blown off as troublemaker, renegade, lone ranger, loner, outsider, not-a-team-player.... The Challenger exploded. All that is left are, regrets.
APPOLOGY TO SAMANTHA POWER / WHYY WEDNESDAY CALL-IN FROM “JAY” AT THE WHITE HOUSE
September 18, 2006
To: Samantha Power
Fr: Jay “LEMKIN” McGinley
RE: APPOLOGY TO SAMANTHA POWER / WHYY WEDNESDAY CALL-IN FROM “JAY” AT THE WHITE HOUSE HOUSE (http://www.whyy.org/rameta/RT/2006/RT20060913_20.ram roughly at 38 minutes in.)
Dear Sister,
I am deeply sorry for any destructive, inappropriate or unnecessary pain I caused you. I am so sorry. You are a rare gift to us. I am profoundly grateful for you. I treasure you.
I swear to God who I love and serve that your pain is my pain. You are my sister. Darfur is my, and your family. And God bless you, I know that about you – that Darfur is YOUR family, in your heart. So rare. That is why you are the number one person I’ve wanted / needed to talk to about Darfur; why I have studied and studied and recommended and gifted your book, and why I have tried to contact you over the last four months. I am and remain distraught that you have never responded. Personally hurt by your ignoring me? God no. There is no “personal” with me anymore. THERE IS ONLY STOPPING THE GENOCIDE IN DARFUR, NOW, stopping the slaughter of my family, our family. That is my heart. That is my life. Your’s too, I believe you feel.
Why do I qualify my apology even a little? (the Pope qualified his MONSTROUSLY. Shamefully?)
1) “All hope lies with the unreasonable [person]….” I’ve been a “Lemkin” my whole adult life. We are perceived as obnoxious, insensitive, crude, brusk, heartless, rough, boorish, boring, nerdy…. It goes with the territory. He didn’t try to provoke those reactions. I try not to, however…. Don’t hate me for being a Lemkin. Help me be an effective one. Please.
2) I am, like you have been, an anitviolent (much better term than nonviolent) commando for Darfur. I’m in the war as best I can as totally as I can. I’m in a foxhole. You are too. If a fellow commando doesn’t by accident jam me in the ribs with their riffle butt as they are swinging around for an incoming enemy, we’re both/all dead. Sorry about my riffle butt in your ribs on Monday!
3) I’m only doing what you said. I’m following your conclusions. Through no intention of your own, tragically, correctably you appear to me to have forgotten some of your miraculous wisdom from “problem from hell!” This is why I called in, to tell you this!
a) ‘The battle… always…lost on the field of US public opinion… we-the-people have never stood up.” [Apology for misquotes. Col. Ann Wright, now of Code Pink has my copy of “Problem from Hell.”] This is the problem. BUT WE ARE NOT ACTING ON YOUR ADVICE! ALL FINGERS POINT AWAY FROM WE-THE-PEOPLE at strategy, Bush, China, Russia, UN, AU, Koffi…. We need the finger pointing at we-the-people. So we can rise to greatness.
b) The “Lemkin” factor. LEADERSHIP. SAMANTHA, YOUR, POTENTIAL GREAT CONTRIBUTION NOW IS LEADING US TO STOP THE GENOCIDE, TODAY. Visibly, courageously, passionately, unmistakably, committedly. George Washington-style. WE NEED YOU LEADING THE CHARGE, out where we can see you; more with your actions/ skin in the game, less with your words at this late stage. George Washington did. No one else (or not many) has your visibility, stature, credibility! [Do I claim infallible wisdom on this? No. Am I correct? You deicide.] If you spend your time now, at this critical juncture, writing a book about the UN, you’ve signaled that the battle for Darfur is lost. No? Even if you don’t believe it!
4) I didn’t know you were to be on the air until 10:20. We spoke at 10:35. I had not time to prepare, and no opportunity to explain.
Obviously, I would give any limb of mine for 20 minutes of your time to discuss this face to face.
Thank God for “Problem from Hell.” HOWEVER, more words, more theory, more strategy WILL NOT SAVE DARFUR at this juncture. Unmistakable leadership and sacrifice by the few is the only thing that can spark, or ever has sparked, those with less imagination to the level of committed action that will stop the Genocide now. Or, please tell me why this is not so, and what historical precedents would say otherwise than I have; because I can’t see any – Vietnam War, apartheid, India Liberation, Suffrage, Civil Rights….
LEADING US VISIBLY, ISN’T THIS WHAT YOU WANT TO DO?
Your Brother,
Jay McGinley
115 Days of Vigil in DC for Darfur; 54 Days of Hunger Strike since July 4th.
484 356 6243
jymcginley@cs.com
To: Samantha Power
Fr: Jay “LEMKIN” McGinley
RE: APPOLOGY TO SAMANTHA POWER / WHYY WEDNESDAY CALL-IN FROM “JAY” AT THE WHITE HOUSE HOUSE (http://www.whyy.org/rameta/RT/2006/RT20060913_20.ram roughly at 38 minutes in.)
Dear Sister,
I am deeply sorry for any destructive, inappropriate or unnecessary pain I caused you. I am so sorry. You are a rare gift to us. I am profoundly grateful for you. I treasure you.
I swear to God who I love and serve that your pain is my pain. You are my sister. Darfur is my, and your family. And God bless you, I know that about you – that Darfur is YOUR family, in your heart. So rare. That is why you are the number one person I’ve wanted / needed to talk to about Darfur; why I have studied and studied and recommended and gifted your book, and why I have tried to contact you over the last four months. I am and remain distraught that you have never responded. Personally hurt by your ignoring me? God no. There is no “personal” with me anymore. THERE IS ONLY STOPPING THE GENOCIDE IN DARFUR, NOW, stopping the slaughter of my family, our family. That is my heart. That is my life. Your’s too, I believe you feel.
Why do I qualify my apology even a little? (the Pope qualified his MONSTROUSLY. Shamefully?)
1) “All hope lies with the unreasonable [person]….” I’ve been a “Lemkin” my whole adult life. We are perceived as obnoxious, insensitive, crude, brusk, heartless, rough, boorish, boring, nerdy…. It goes with the territory. He didn’t try to provoke those reactions. I try not to, however…. Don’t hate me for being a Lemkin. Help me be an effective one. Please.
2) I am, like you have been, an anitviolent (much better term than nonviolent) commando for Darfur. I’m in the war as best I can as totally as I can. I’m in a foxhole. You are too. If a fellow commando doesn’t by accident jam me in the ribs with their riffle butt as they are swinging around for an incoming enemy, we’re both/all dead. Sorry about my riffle butt in your ribs on Monday!
3) I’m only doing what you said. I’m following your conclusions. Through no intention of your own, tragically, correctably you appear to me to have forgotten some of your miraculous wisdom from “problem from hell!” This is why I called in, to tell you this!
a) ‘The battle… always…lost on the field of US public opinion… we-the-people have never stood up.” [Apology for misquotes. Col. Ann Wright, now of Code Pink has my copy of “Problem from Hell.”] This is the problem. BUT WE ARE NOT ACTING ON YOUR ADVICE! ALL FINGERS POINT AWAY FROM WE-THE-PEOPLE at strategy, Bush, China, Russia, UN, AU, Koffi…. We need the finger pointing at we-the-people. So we can rise to greatness.
b) The “Lemkin” factor. LEADERSHIP. SAMANTHA, YOUR, POTENTIAL GREAT CONTRIBUTION NOW IS LEADING US TO STOP THE GENOCIDE, TODAY. Visibly, courageously, passionately, unmistakably, committedly. George Washington-style. WE NEED YOU LEADING THE CHARGE, out where we can see you; more with your actions/ skin in the game, less with your words at this late stage. George Washington did. No one else (or not many) has your visibility, stature, credibility! [Do I claim infallible wisdom on this? No. Am I correct? You deicide.] If you spend your time now, at this critical juncture, writing a book about the UN, you’ve signaled that the battle for Darfur is lost. No? Even if you don’t believe it!
4) I didn’t know you were to be on the air until 10:20. We spoke at 10:35. I had not time to prepare, and no opportunity to explain.
Obviously, I would give any limb of mine for 20 minutes of your time to discuss this face to face.
Thank God for “Problem from Hell.” HOWEVER, more words, more theory, more strategy WILL NOT SAVE DARFUR at this juncture. Unmistakable leadership and sacrifice by the few is the only thing that can spark, or ever has sparked, those with less imagination to the level of committed action that will stop the Genocide now. Or, please tell me why this is not so, and what historical precedents would say otherwise than I have; because I can’t see any – Vietnam War, apartheid, India Liberation, Suffrage, Civil Rights….
LEADING US VISIBLY, ISN’T THIS WHAT YOU WANT TO DO?
Your Brother,
Jay McGinley
115 Days of Vigil in DC for Darfur; 54 Days of Hunger Strike since July 4th.
484 356 6243
jymcginley@cs.com
Friday, September 15, 2006
'Never again'. But do they mean it?, GENOCIDE Survivors Talk to UK Independent
The Independent, UK: Day for Darfur inspires protests in 32 countries , By Paul Vallely, Published: 16 September 2006
Note: Will heroes emerge for Darfur? Maybe the folks pictured below, and dozens more HERE from Saturday's AfricaAction.org demonstation September 9, 2006? Maybe nobody?
Susan Pollack, SURVIVOR, THE HOLOCAUST IN EUROPE
I was 13 years old when German troops came to my village of Felsogod in Hungary and took my father. I never saw him again. Then they came for me and my family and sent us to Auschwitz. My mother was gassed to death as soon as we arrived. I survived Auschwitz, slave labour, selection at the hands of Doctor Josef Mengele and a death march to Belsen before I was 15. I can still see the mountains of corpses at Auschwitz. After the Holocaust, the world said "never again". Today they are still saying it, but when genocides like Darfur go on unchecked, I'm beginning to wonder if they mean it.
Beatha Uwazaninka, SURVIVOR, GENOCIDE IN RWANDA
When the genocide began, I was 14 years old and it was hard to make sense of it.
For three months, I was on the run, hiding in sugar cane fields and the houses of the dead. I narrowly avoided being raped and murdered but a million of my people, including my family and friends, were massacred in the space of a hundred days while the world looked on.
I have rebuilt my life and have a baby girl now. For her sake, and the sake of millions of others all over the world, I have to speak out about what is going on today in Darfur.
Kemal Pervanic, SURVIVOR, ETHNIC CLEANSING IN BOSNIA
Life in the Serb concentration camps was horrific. I witnessed atrocities daily. You live day-to-day, keeping your head down in case you catch a guard's eye; seeing men called out who never return; hearing their tortured screams. Despite the lessons of the failures in Rwanda and the Balkans hundreds of thousands of Muslims have been killed in Darfur and no one cares enough to stop it. Western governments dithered over Bosnia. This time, despite the fact that it's Muslims being killed, it is Arab governments whose silence is allowing the conflict to continue unabated.
And today from the Washington Post: For Darfur Women, Survival Means Leaving Camp, Risking Rape; By Craig Timberg Washington Post Foreign ServiceSaturday, September 16, 2006
The tall, light-skinned man reeking of sweat and cigarettes often gallops his horse right into the nightmares of Darelsalam Ahmed Eisa, 18. Each time, she said, he throws her to the ground, pushes up her skirt and forces himself inside her while muttering: " Abdah. Abdah. Abdah ."
Slave woman. Slave woman. Slave woman.
He was in her dreams just last night, she recalled, as real and horrifying in his green camouflage uniform as he was the day he raped her two months ago. But when Eisa awoke this morning, there was no time for terror, no time for tears. She covered herself in an orange and blue cloth, grabbed the family's ax and departed for the perilous Darfur countryside, out of the relative safety of a sprawling camp for people displaced by the violence in this region of western Sudan.
In the wilderness, Eisa can find grass for the donkeys and firewood for cooking. But it is also where government-backed militias known as the Janjaweed roam, terrorizing villagers. Violence and disease in Darfur have killed as many as 450,000 people since 2003, and an estimated 2 million have been forced to flee their homes....
'Never again,' But do they, do we mean it? Now history will know the answer. Jay
Note: Will heroes emerge for Darfur? Maybe the folks pictured below, and dozens more HERE from Saturday's AfricaAction.org demonstation September 9, 2006? Maybe nobody?Susan Pollack, SURVIVOR, THE HOLOCAUST IN EUROPE
I was 13 years old when German troops came to my village of Felsogod in Hungary and took my father. I never saw him again. Then they came for me and my family and sent us to Auschwitz. My mother was gassed to death as soon as we arrived. I survived Auschwitz, slave labour, selection at the hands of Doctor Josef Mengele and a death march to Belsen before I was 15. I can still see the mountains of corpses at Auschwitz. After the Holocaust, the world said "never again". Today they are still saying it, but when genocides like Darfur go on unchecked, I'm beginning to wonder if they mean it.
Beatha Uwazaninka, SURVIVOR, GENOCIDE IN RWANDA
When the genocide began, I was 14 years old and it was hard to make sense of it.
For three months, I was on the run, hiding in sugar cane fields and the houses of the dead. I narrowly avoided being raped and murdered but a million of my people, including my family and friends, were massacred in the space of a hundred days while the world looked on.
I have rebuilt my life and have a baby girl now. For her sake, and the sake of millions of others all over the world, I have to speak out about what is going on today in Darfur.Kemal Pervanic, SURVIVOR, ETHNIC CLEANSING IN BOSNIA
Life in the Serb concentration camps was horrific. I witnessed atrocities daily. You live day-to-day, keeping your head down in case you catch a guard's eye; seeing men called out who never return; hearing their tortured screams. Despite the lessons of the failures in Rwanda and the Balkans hundreds of thousands of Muslims have been killed in Darfur and no one cares enough to stop it. Western governments dithered over Bosnia. This time, despite the fact that it's Muslims being killed, it is Arab governments whose silence is allowing the conflict to continue unabated.
And today from the Washington Post: For Darfur Women, Survival Means Leaving Camp, Risking Rape; By Craig Timberg Washington Post Foreign ServiceSaturday, September 16, 2006
The tall, light-skinned man reeking of sweat and cigarettes often gallops his horse right into the nightmares of Darelsalam Ahmed Eisa, 18. Each time, she said, he throws her to the ground, pushes up her skirt and forces himself inside her while muttering: " Abdah. Abdah. Abdah ."
Slave woman. Slave woman. Slave woman.
He was in her dreams just last night, she recalled, as real and horrifying in his green camouflage uniform as he was the day he raped her two months ago. But when Eisa awoke this morning, there was no time for terror, no time for tears. She covered herself in an orange and blue cloth, grabbed the family's ax and departed for the perilous Darfur countryside, out of the relative safety of a sprawling camp for people displaced by the violence in this region of western Sudan.
In the wilderness, Eisa can find grass for the donkeys and firewood for cooking. But it is also where government-backed militias known as the Janjaweed roam, terrorizing villagers. Violence and disease in Darfur have killed as many as 450,000 people since 2003, and an estimated 2 million have been forced to flee their homes....
'Never again,' But do they, do we mean it? Now history will know the answer. Jay
Thursday, September 14, 2006
WASHINGTON POST: COUPLE WHO FOUGHT GENOCIDE; & OTHER NEWS
Note: Will heroes emerge for Darfur? Maybe the folks pictured below, and dozens more HERE from Saturday's AfricaAction.org demonstation September 9, 2006? Maybe nobody?
The Ithacan 9/14/06: Alumnus sacrifices family and food for Darfur cause; and also Assisting those in Darfur. Question: For we as individuals, what actions would be appropriate for us if those being exterminated at this very moment were: OUR IMMEDIATE FAMILY? WHITE, UPWARDLY MOBILE, AMERICANS? 6,000,000 JEWS DURING THE HOLOCAUST?
Washington Post 9/14/06: Rebels Say They May Abandon Darfur Pact, Faction Commanders Demand a Strong International Force. Note:Illusions of stability, and that we have time to discuss, delay, deny... the facts no longer support these illusions.
Washington Post 9/14/06 Couple Who Fought Genocide; same article without registering at MSNBC. By Alan CoopermanWashington Post Staff Writer Thursday, September 14, 2006; Some excerpts:
As the Nazis marched across Europe in 1939 and 1940, a Unitarian minister from Massachusetts and his wife rushed into the coming Holocaust to save Jews and other refugees, including dozens of children.
For their heroism, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum will dedicate plaques today in memory of Waitstill and Martha Sharp. They are only the second and third U.S. citizens named to an honor roll of 21,000 "righteous" gentiles, non-Jews who risked their lives to rescue Jews.
The Holocaust museum is honoring Martha and Waitstill Sharp, a Unitarian minister, for their rescue missions to Europe as the Nazis ravaged the Continent. (Unitarian Universalist Service Committee)
But the moral example of the Sharps is arguably much greater, and certainly more complex, than those bare facts suggest. When they made two lengthy trips to Europe to save the children of strangers, they left their own children with relatives and parishioners. Their 2-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son were separated, and the daughter nearly died of pneumonia in her parents' absence.
Decades later, the Sharps' children and grandchildren are still working out the emotional consequences -- and thinking over the ethical questions -- created by the couple's wartime activity...
"The moral dilemma they pose for each of us is not just 'Am I willing to risk my own skin to save someone else's life?' It is 'Am I willing to impose risk and sacrifice on my children to save other people's lives?' " said their grandson, Artemis Joukowsky III of Boston...
Joukowsky, 45, is proud of them. He has done more than anyone to win them recognition by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem that maintains the list of righteous gentiles. He is making a documentary film and writing a book in hopes that their story will inspire Americans to act boldly when genocides occur in such places as Darfur, Sudan.
Yet he said he could never do to his children what his grandparents did to his mother and uncle.
"I have to say, they crossed a certain line. One of them leaving was fine. But the fact that they both left, especially the second time, when they knew what they were getting into. . . . It was heroic, but it crossed a line..."
Looking back, Martha Sharp Joukowsky said, "The values I hold for myself may not be the same that I held my parents to. I think that sacrifice is something they felt they had to do. I don't make any value judgments. I can't. . . . Is home important? Yes, but it is more important that ideas are put into action. They felt the world was in a crisis, they had to rise to the occasion. Nobody else was."
Washington Post 9/15/06: Clooney, Wiesel tell UN time running out in Darfur
By Evelyn LeopoldReutersThursday, September 14, 2006; 7:59 PM. Note: It is like when you decide to push an enormous boulder to the top of a huge hill - once you get it going and toward the top, if you lose momentum you will probably NEVER get the boulder to the top of the hill; we would probably NEVER STOP THE GENOCIDE. NOW is the time.
The Ithacan 9/14/06: Alumnus sacrifices family and food for Darfur cause; and also Assisting those in Darfur. Question: For we as individuals, what actions would be appropriate for us if those being exterminated at this very moment were: OUR IMMEDIATE FAMILY? WHITE, UPWARDLY MOBILE, AMERICANS? 6,000,000 JEWS DURING THE HOLOCAUST?
Washington Post 9/14/06: Rebels Say They May Abandon Darfur Pact, Faction Commanders Demand a Strong International Force. Note:Illusions of stability, and that we have time to discuss, delay, deny... the facts no longer support these illusions.
Washington Post 9/14/06 Couple Who Fought Genocide; same article without registering at MSNBC. By Alan CoopermanWashington Post Staff Writer Thursday, September 14, 2006; Some excerpts:As the Nazis marched across Europe in 1939 and 1940, a Unitarian minister from Massachusetts and his wife rushed into the coming Holocaust to save Jews and other refugees, including dozens of children.
For their heroism, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum will dedicate plaques today in memory of Waitstill and Martha Sharp. They are only the second and third U.S. citizens named to an honor roll of 21,000 "righteous" gentiles, non-Jews who risked their lives to rescue Jews.
The Holocaust museum is honoring Martha and Waitstill Sharp, a Unitarian minister, for their rescue missions to Europe as the Nazis ravaged the Continent. (Unitarian Universalist Service Committee)
But the moral example of the Sharps is arguably much greater, and certainly more complex, than those bare facts suggest. When they made two lengthy trips to Europe to save the children of strangers, they left their own children with relatives and parishioners. Their 2-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son were separated, and the daughter nearly died of pneumonia in her parents' absence.
Decades later, the Sharps' children and grandchildren are still working out the emotional consequences -- and thinking over the ethical questions -- created by the couple's wartime activity...
"The moral dilemma they pose for each of us is not just 'Am I willing to risk my own skin to save someone else's life?' It is 'Am I willing to impose risk and sacrifice on my children to save other people's lives?' " said their grandson, Artemis Joukowsky III of Boston...
Joukowsky, 45, is proud of them. He has done more than anyone to win them recognition by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem that maintains the list of righteous gentiles. He is making a documentary film and writing a book in hopes that their story will inspire Americans to act boldly when genocides occur in such places as Darfur, Sudan.Yet he said he could never do to his children what his grandparents did to his mother and uncle.
"I have to say, they crossed a certain line. One of them leaving was fine. But the fact that they both left, especially the second time, when they knew what they were getting into. . . . It was heroic, but it crossed a line..."
Looking back, Martha Sharp Joukowsky said, "The values I hold for myself may not be the same that I held my parents to. I think that sacrifice is something they felt they had to do. I don't make any value judgments. I can't. . . . Is home important? Yes, but it is more important that ideas are put into action. They felt the world was in a crisis, they had to rise to the occasion. Nobody else was."
Washington Post 9/15/06: Clooney, Wiesel tell UN time running out in Darfur
By Evelyn LeopoldReutersThursday, September 14, 2006; 7:59 PM. Note: It is like when you decide to push an enormous boulder to the top of a huge hill - once you get it going and toward the top, if you lose momentum you will probably NEVER get the boulder to the top of the hill; we would probably NEVER STOP THE GENOCIDE. NOW is the time.
THE ONLY HOPE FOR DARFUR: WE-THE-PEOPLE. duh
Note: Click HERE for 100s o f photos and detials from Sunday's AfricaAction.org arrests at the White House 9/09/06.
It is said that the mark of truly being “crazy” is expecting different results to come despite repeating the same actions over and over and…
Ok, we've tried some new approaches, hoping we could find a new formula for mass social change (stopping Genocide has NEVER been done. N-E-V-E-R); looking for a way that would be comfortable, convenient, safe, executed from where we are, from our computer terminal / phone / office / home in some combination. The variations we’ve tried are:
* Blame - UN, EU, AU, Bush, Congress...
* Emails / Blogs / Letters / Phone calls / Post cards / 1-day-fasts (yawn; oh, excuse me) / an occasional 3 hour demonstration (with entertainment!)...
* Letting the Nonprofits do it - SaveDarfur.org, AfricaAction.org, GenocideIntervention.net, STANDnow.org...
* Divestment...
* Meetings, lectures, prayer services...
And the results are in! WE ARE NOT, N-O-T STOPPING THE GENOCIDE! Infact, all evidence to the contrary - things have gotten worse, much worse. We might have known it would not come this cheap.
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 oppression at the start of the US....
Yup. Soldiers, of the antiviolent variety, putting themselves in harms way to protect the innocent. King's way. Gandhi's way. Jesus' way. A mother's way.
Let the blame for the Genocide rest with us. WE-THE-PEOPLE. Let the END OF GENOCIDE BE BROUGHT BY US, we-the-people-of-the-world! 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-PEOPLE.
Time for us to start - marching, demonstrating, sitting-in, hunger striking… UNTIL DARFUR GENOCIDE STOPS.
The next step is September 17th (SaveDarfur.org; DayForDarfur.org). We must make these worldwide events an earsplitting mandate to the “governing bodies” that we demand, we mandate, we support nothing less than the immediate end to the Genocide. Our message must be unmistakable, “Do what it takes. FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION. Do what we hired you to do, or make room for those who will.”
Then we need to be ready on SEPTEMBER 18th, 19th… AS LONG AS IT TAKES, WHATEVER IT TAKES FROM US TO END THIS GENOCIDE, NOW.
It is said that the mark of truly being “crazy” is expecting different results to come despite repeating the same actions over and over and…Ok, we've tried some new approaches, hoping we could find a new formula for mass social change (stopping Genocide has NEVER been done. N-E-V-E-R); looking for a way that would be comfortable, convenient, safe, executed from where we are, from our computer terminal / phone / office / home in some combination. The variations we’ve tried are:
* Blame - UN, EU, AU, Bush, Congress...
* Emails / Blogs / Letters / Phone calls / Post cards / 1-day-fasts (yawn; oh, excuse me) / an occasional 3 hour demonstration (with entertainment!)...
* Letting the Nonprofits do it - SaveDarfur.org, AfricaAction.org, GenocideIntervention.net, STANDnow.org...
* Divestment...
* Meetings, lectures, prayer services...
And the results are in! WE ARE NOT, N-O-T STOPPING THE GENOCIDE! Infact, all evidence to the contrary - things have gotten worse, much worse. We might have known it would not come this cheap.
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 oppression at the start of the US....
Yup. Soldiers, of the antiviolent variety, putting themselves in harms way to protect the innocent. King's way. Gandhi's way. Jesus' way. A mother's way.
Let the blame for the Genocide rest with us. WE-THE-PEOPLE. Let the END OF GENOCIDE BE BROUGHT BY US, we-the-people-of-the-world! 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-PEOPLE.
Time for us to start - marching, demonstrating, sitting-in, hunger striking… UNTIL DARFUR GENOCIDE STOPS.The next step is September 17th (SaveDarfur.org; DayForDarfur.org). We must make these worldwide events an earsplitting mandate to the “governing bodies” that we demand, we mandate, we support nothing less than the immediate end to the Genocide. Our message must be unmistakable, “Do what it takes. FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION. Do what we hired you to do, or make room for those who will.”
Then we need to be ready on SEPTEMBER 18th, 19th… AS LONG AS IT TAKES, WHATEVER IT TAKES FROM US TO END THIS GENOCIDE, NOW.
Important in the News
Note: Will heroes emerge for Darfur? Maybe the folks pictured below, and dozens more HERE from Saturday's AfricaAction.org demonstation September 9, 2006? Maybe nobody?
The Ithacan 9/14/06: Alumnus sacrifices family and food for Darfur cause; and also Assisting those in Darfur. Question: For we as individuals, what actions would be appropriate for us if those being exterminated, as we speak, were: OUR IMMEDIATE FAMILY? WHITE, UPWARDLY MOBILE, AMERICANS? 6,000,000 JEWS DURING THE HOLOCAUST?
Washington Post 9/14/06: Rebels Say They May Abandon Darfur Pact, Faction Commanders Demand a Strong International Force. Note:Illusions of stability, and that we have time to discuss, delay, deny... the facts no longer support these illusions.
Washington Post 9/14/06 Couple Who Fought Genocide; same article without registering at MSNBC. By Alan CoopermanWashington Post Staff Writer Thursday, September 14, 2006; Some excerpts:
As the Nazis marched across Europe in 1939 and 1940, a Unitarian minister from Massachusetts and his wife rushed into the coming Holocaust to save Jews and other refugees, including dozens of children.
For their heroism, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum will dedicate plaques today in memory of Waitstill and Martha Sharp. They are only the second and third U.S. citizens named to an honor roll of 21,000 "righteous" gentiles, non-Jews who risked their lives to rescue Jews.
The Holocaust museum is honoring Martha and Waitstill Sharp, a Unitarian minister, for their rescue missions to Europe as the Nazis ravaged the Continent. (Unitarian Universalist Service Committee)
But the moral example of the Sharps is arguably much greater, and certainly more complex, than those bare facts suggest. When they made two lengthy trips to Europe to save the children of strangers, they left their own children with relatives and parishioners. Their 2-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son were separated, and the daughter nearly died of pneumonia in her parents' absence.
Decades later, the Sharps' children and grandchildren are still working out the emotional consequences -- and thinking over the ethical questions -- created by the couple's wartime activity...
"The moral dilemma they pose for each of us is not just 'Am I willing to risk my own skin to save someone else's life?' It is 'Am I willing to impose risk and sacrifice on my children to save other people's lives?' " said their grandson, Artemis Joukowsky III of Boston...
Joukowsky, 45, is proud of them. He has done more than anyone to win them recognition by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem that maintains the list of righteous gentiles. He is making a documentary film and writing a book in hopes that their story will inspire Americans to act boldly when genocides occur in such places as Darfur, Sudan.
Yet he said he could never do to his children what his grandparents did to his mother and uncle.
"I have to say, they crossed a certain line. One of them leaving was fine. But the fact that they both left, especially the second time, when they knew what they were getting into. . . . It was heroic, but it crossed a line..."
Looking back, Martha Sharp Joukowsky said, "The values I hold for myself may not be the same that I held my parents to. I think that sacrifice is something they felt they had to do. I don't make any value judgments. I can't. . . . Is home important? Yes, but it is more important that ideas are put into action. They felt the world was in a crisis, they had to rise to the occasion. Nobody else was."
The Ithacan 9/14/06: Alumnus sacrifices family and food for Darfur cause; and also Assisting those in Darfur. Question: For we as individuals, what actions would be appropriate for us if those being exterminated, as we speak, were: OUR IMMEDIATE FAMILY? WHITE, UPWARDLY MOBILE, AMERICANS? 6,000,000 JEWS DURING THE HOLOCAUST?
Washington Post 9/14/06: Rebels Say They May Abandon Darfur Pact, Faction Commanders Demand a Strong International Force. Note:Illusions of stability, and that we have time to discuss, delay, deny... the facts no longer support these illusions.
Washington Post 9/14/06 Couple Who Fought Genocide; same article without registering at MSNBC. By Alan CoopermanWashington Post Staff Writer Thursday, September 14, 2006; Some excerpts:As the Nazis marched across Europe in 1939 and 1940, a Unitarian minister from Massachusetts and his wife rushed into the coming Holocaust to save Jews and other refugees, including dozens of children.
For their heroism, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum will dedicate plaques today in memory of Waitstill and Martha Sharp. They are only the second and third U.S. citizens named to an honor roll of 21,000 "righteous" gentiles, non-Jews who risked their lives to rescue Jews.
The Holocaust museum is honoring Martha and Waitstill Sharp, a Unitarian minister, for their rescue missions to Europe as the Nazis ravaged the Continent. (Unitarian Universalist Service Committee)
But the moral example of the Sharps is arguably much greater, and certainly more complex, than those bare facts suggest. When they made two lengthy trips to Europe to save the children of strangers, they left their own children with relatives and parishioners. Their 2-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son were separated, and the daughter nearly died of pneumonia in her parents' absence.
Decades later, the Sharps' children and grandchildren are still working out the emotional consequences -- and thinking over the ethical questions -- created by the couple's wartime activity...
"The moral dilemma they pose for each of us is not just 'Am I willing to risk my own skin to save someone else's life?' It is 'Am I willing to impose risk and sacrifice on my children to save other people's lives?' " said their grandson, Artemis Joukowsky III of Boston...
Joukowsky, 45, is proud of them. He has done more than anyone to win them recognition by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem that maintains the list of righteous gentiles. He is making a documentary film and writing a book in hopes that their story will inspire Americans to act boldly when genocides occur in such places as Darfur, Sudan.Yet he said he could never do to his children what his grandparents did to his mother and uncle.
"I have to say, they crossed a certain line. One of them leaving was fine. But the fact that they both left, especially the second time, when they knew what they were getting into. . . . It was heroic, but it crossed a line..."
Looking back, Martha Sharp Joukowsky said, "The values I hold for myself may not be the same that I held my parents to. I think that sacrifice is something they felt they had to do. I don't make any value judgments. I can't. . . . Is home important? Yes, but it is more important that ideas are put into action. They felt the world was in a crisis, they had to rise to the occasion. Nobody else was."
Sunday, September 10, 2006
SEPT 17: FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION
September 9th Africa Action set the tone...
[Note: Many more photos thanks to GenocideIntervention.net a. HERE and b. HERE]
FOR... D DAY (Darfur Day) - SEPT 17 NYC Central Park 2:00 PM, !!See now also: California, District of Columbia, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington
WE MUST MAKE SUNDAY THE ABSOLUTE END OF GENOCIDE - ABSOLUTE VICTORY OVER EL BASHIR'S OBSTRUCTION OF UN.
FAILURE CANNOT BE AN OPTION. Your mandate, OUR TURNOUT must be MASSIVE and DEFINITIVE If you discover that CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE is necessary to make YOUR VOICE FINAL,
CLICK left for details
CLICK left for detials
...BUT IF WE MUST FIGHT SEPTEMBER 20TH, 21ST, 22ND, 23RD... WE MUST BE READY, WILLING AND ABLE! FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION.
[Note: Many more photos thanks to GenocideIntervention.net a. HERE and b. HERE]
FOR... D DAY (Darfur Day) - SEPT 17 NYC Central Park 2:00 PM, !!See now also: California, District of Columbia, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington
WE MUST MAKE SUNDAY THE ABSOLUTE END OF GENOCIDE - ABSOLUTE VICTORY OVER EL BASHIR'S OBSTRUCTION OF UN.
FAILURE CANNOT BE AN OPTION. Your mandate, OUR TURNOUT must be MASSIVE and DEFINITIVE If you discover that CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE is necessary to make YOUR VOICE FINAL,
FOR GOD'S SAKE BE PREPARED, AND DO IT. (YOU DID FOR CIVIL RIGHTS, LIVING WAGES, ENDING APARTHEID...). THERE IS NO OCTOBER FOR DARFUR.
CLICK left for detailsCLICK left for detials...BUT IF WE MUST FIGHT SEPTEMBER 20TH, 21ST, 22ND, 23RD... WE MUST BE READY, WILLING AND ABLE! FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION.
30 ARRESTED AT WHITE HOUSE SATURDAY
Hunger Strike Day 35; DC Vigil Day 105
DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR: “When you are right you cannot be too radical….”
“… when a person is bleeding to death, the ambulance goes through those red lights at top speed...... Disinherited people all over the world are bleeding to death from deep social and economic wounds. They need brigades of ambulance drivers who will have to ignore the red lights of the present system until the emergency is solved...civil disobedience is a strategy for social change which is at least as forceful as an ambulance with its sirens on full.”
[Note: Many more photos thanks to GenocideIntervention.net HERE]
A Cry for Intervention in Darfur
D.C. Demonstrators Call On Bush to Press for U.N. Peacekeepers By Henri E. Cauvin Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, September 10, 2006.
...30 protesters carrying signs marched from Lafayette Square across Pennsylvania Avenue, where they lay down on the sidewalk outside the White House fence and held up the signs.
The protesters were arrested by U.S. Park Police to the cheers of hundreds of fellow demonstrators who watched from across Pennsylvania Avenue, chanting for their cause.
"Stop the genocide! Break the deadlock! Protect the people!" the group called out as the 30 demonstrators lay, still holding up their signs…
"It's been two years, and Mr. Bush hasn't done anything about it," said Emily Funigiello, 17, who traveled from the University of North Carolina in Wilmington to join the demonstration.
Her friend Melissa Salvatore, 18, said the United States and the president cannot forget what happened not so many years ago. "We can't let what happened in Rwanda happen in Darfur."
Darfur Trembles as Peacekeepers’ Exit Looms By LYDIA POLGREEN Published: September 10, 2006
“What happened in Rwanda, it will happen here,” said Sheik Abdullah Muhammad Ali, who fled here from a nearby village seeking the safety that he hoped the presence of about 200 African Union peacekeepers would bring. But the Sudanese government has asked the African Union to quit Darfur… “If these soldiers leave,” Sheik Ali said, “we will all be slaughtered… “We beg the international community, somebody, come and save us….”
On Sunday [September 3, 2006 ] riot police broke up demonstrations in favor of the peacekeepers at a university in el-Fasher, capital of North Darfur province. Two students [were killed] and more than 10 were injured, the United Nations reported.
DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR: “When you are right you cannot be too radical….”“… when a person is bleeding to death, the ambulance goes through those red lights at top speed...... Disinherited people all over the world are bleeding to death from deep social and economic wounds. They need brigades of ambulance drivers who will have to ignore the red lights of the present system until the emergency is solved...civil disobedience is a strategy for social change which is at least as forceful as an ambulance with its sirens on full.”
[Note: Many more photos thanks to GenocideIntervention.net HERE]
A Cry for Intervention in DarfurD.C. Demonstrators Call On Bush to Press for U.N. Peacekeepers By Henri E. Cauvin Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, September 10, 2006.
...30 protesters carrying signs marched from Lafayette Square across Pennsylvania Avenue, where they lay down on the sidewalk outside the White House fence and held up the signs.
The protesters were arrested by U.S. Park Police to the cheers of hundreds of fellow demonstrators who watched from across Pennsylvania Avenue, chanting for their cause.
"Stop the genocide! Break the deadlock! Protect the people!" the group called out as the 30 demonstrators lay, still holding up their signs…
"It's been two years, and Mr. Bush hasn't done anything about it," said Emily Funigiello, 17, who traveled from the University of North Carolina in Wilmington to join the demonstration.
Her friend Melissa Salvatore, 18, said the United States and the president cannot forget what happened not so many years ago. "We can't let what happened in Rwanda happen in Darfur."
Darfur Trembles as Peacekeepers’ Exit Looms By LYDIA POLGREEN Published: September 10, 2006“What happened in Rwanda, it will happen here,” said Sheik Abdullah Muhammad Ali, who fled here from a nearby village seeking the safety that he hoped the presence of about 200 African Union peacekeepers would bring. But the Sudanese government has asked the African Union to quit Darfur… “If these soldiers leave,” Sheik Ali said, “we will all be slaughtered… “We beg the international community, somebody, come and save us….”
On Sunday [Tuesday, September 05, 2006
DARFUR: HUNGER STRIKE RESUMES IN DC
The Hunger Strike for Darfur at the White House / around DC resumes Friday, September 8th.
NOW, given the developments of this past week, September 9th at the White House (africaaction.org) and September 17th in NYC (savedarfur.org)/Around the World (dayfordarfur.org) MUST BE THE START OF OUR BATTLE FOR DARFUR. Or, we have finally and certainly abandoned Darfur to Genocide; and God help us.
The HUNGER STRIKE SUSPENDED (War over? War beginning?) Wednesday, August 30th after 45 days water only, in the midst of highly divergent accounts of the prospects for ending the Genocide. Bashir's behavior suggested a total disregard for International and US will. However, US Ambassador to the UN Bolton asserted that his only worry was responding fast enough to Bashir's acquiescence to troops. All of which suggested that it would take several weeks to see who knew what he was talking about, and who had the will to determine the outcome.
No need to wait any longer. If "will" were measured in words, the Hunger Strike would be suspended for good! My goodness, we in the US have been chanting in earnest "NEVER AGAIN" and "NOT ON OUR WATCH" for three years now. BUT WORDS ARE CHEAP, ACTION IS DEAR. And Bashir is the one determined to act on this stage, so far.
Our WORDS say: Never again!
Our ACTIONS say: Never again! if I can stop it with emails, postcards, a rally every 6 months and the telephone during commercials and between classes.
Our WORDS say: Not on my watch!
Our ACTIONS say: Not on my watch! if it is safe, convenient and does not disrupt my plans for me and mine or mess up my GPA.
Our WORDS say: GENOCIDE!
Our ACTIONS say: Darfur GENOCIDE is less important than whether there are to be Soda Machines at my little brother's middle school or not, or that date I have planned for this weekend.
Within the last week Bashir has called the UN resolution for immediate troops "illegal," restarted the war counter to the May 5th DPA, moved most of 10,000 troops into Darfur, restarted genocidal slaughter of civilians with bombs and guns, told the AU to leave unless they agree to NEVER accept UN Blue Hat, KILLED DARFUR STUDENTS STRIKING FOR UN INTERVENTION, killed more aid workers, destroyed what safety was left to allow aid workers to keep 4,000,000 alive.... He's been busy this past week!
The International and Activist community in the face of all this horror has... hmmmm... DONE NOTHING, except what we do... talk....blog.... write emails.... read news... basically watch ....pontificate, analyze ....whine, ....criticize... issue press releases.... But really ACT? PUT OUR SKIN IN THE GAME? Nah.
I know this can change. We Americans, we world citizens are better than this. We have more humanity and courage than this. Now, immediately - others must join in real action - civil disobedience, mass - protracted demonstrations, hunger strikes.... Until we are heard; until 24,000 peace keepers are on the ground in Darfur with Chapter 7 mandate. We must leave no room for the US Government, our fellow Americans, and the international community to continue to watch. The only option that OUR BEHAVIOR must leave is for the World to stop the genocide now. Period. End of discussion. FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION.
THE NGO / NONPROFIT LEADERS MUST BEGIN TO LEAD US, not to activity, but to victory. Nothing less is acceptable. AfricaAction.org is beginning to show signs of appropriate leadership. Others must follow. History, Darfur, Bashir are watching. Failure is not an option.
This can be our finest hour. This must be our finest hour. MUCH, MUCH, MUCH MORE THAN DARFUR IS AT STAKE, as if 4,000,000 Darfur lives were not enough.
NOW, given the developments of this past week, September 9th at the White House (africaaction.org) and September 17th in NYC (savedarfur.org)/Around the World (dayfordarfur.org) MUST BE THE START OF OUR BATTLE FOR DARFUR. Or, we have finally and certainly abandoned Darfur to Genocide; and God help us.
The HUNGER STRIKE SUSPENDED (War over? War beginning?) Wednesday, August 30th after 45 days water only, in the midst of highly divergent accounts of the prospects for ending the Genocide. Bashir's behavior suggested a total disregard for International and US will. However, US Ambassador to the UN Bolton asserted that his only worry was responding fast enough to Bashir's acquiescence to troops. All of which suggested that it would take several weeks to see who knew what he was talking about, and who had the will to determine the outcome.
No need to wait any longer. If "will" were measured in words, the Hunger Strike would be suspended for good! My goodness, we in the US have been chanting in earnest "NEVER AGAIN" and "NOT ON OUR WATCH" for three years now. BUT WORDS ARE CHEAP, ACTION IS DEAR. And Bashir is the one determined to act on this stage, so far.
Our WORDS say: Never again!
Our ACTIONS say: Never again! if I can stop it with emails, postcards, a rally every 6 months and the telephone during commercials and between classes.
Our WORDS say: Not on my watch!
Our ACTIONS say: Not on my watch! if it is safe, convenient and does not disrupt my plans for me and mine or mess up my GPA.
Our WORDS say: GENOCIDE!
Our ACTIONS say: Darfur GENOCIDE is less important than whether there are to be Soda Machines at my little brother's middle school or not, or that date I have planned for this weekend.
Within the last week Bashir has called the UN resolution for immediate troops "illegal," restarted the war counter to the May 5th DPA, moved most of 10,000 troops into Darfur, restarted genocidal slaughter of civilians with bombs and guns, told the AU to leave unless they agree to NEVER accept UN Blue Hat, KILLED DARFUR STUDENTS STRIKING FOR UN INTERVENTION, killed more aid workers, destroyed what safety was left to allow aid workers to keep 4,000,000 alive.... He's been busy this past week!
The International and Activist community in the face of all this horror has... hmmmm... DONE NOTHING, except what we do... talk....blog.... write emails.... read news... basically watch ....pontificate, analyze ....whine, ....criticize... issue press releases.... But really ACT? PUT OUR SKIN IN THE GAME? Nah.
I know this can change. We Americans, we world citizens are better than this. We have more humanity and courage than this. Now, immediately - others must join in real action - civil disobedience, mass - protracted demonstrations, hunger strikes.... Until we are heard; until 24,000 peace keepers are on the ground in Darfur with Chapter 7 mandate. We must leave no room for the US Government, our fellow Americans, and the international community to continue to watch. The only option that OUR BEHAVIOR must leave is for the World to stop the genocide now. Period. End of discussion. FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION.
THE NGO / NONPROFIT LEADERS MUST BEGIN TO LEAD US, not to activity, but to victory. Nothing less is acceptable. AfricaAction.org is beginning to show signs of appropriate leadership. Others must follow. History, Darfur, Bashir are watching. Failure is not an option.
This can be our finest hour. This must be our finest hour. MUCH, MUCH, MUCH MORE THAN DARFUR IS AT STAKE, as if 4,000,000 Darfur lives were not enough.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Recuperating with Family
While the dust settles on the activities by the State Dept / UN / Sept 9th / Sept 17th / Bashir obstruction... while the Hunger Strike is suspended my body demanded some recovery time that I am taking with friends / family. All I've done for several days is sleep. Apparantly I was more exhausted from the Strike and 100+ day Vigil than I realized; and my body was much more shut down than I realized. Eating, more particulary digesting, is an extremely difficult task for my body to accomplish.
I think this issue with digestion is why my legs are so extremely swolen - severe edema. My guess is that my kidneys have lost the ability to process my food properly - eliminate salt, and balince protiens, etc. In any case, my body is a bit messed up and so that I can serve better in a few weeks, I regretably will be away from the Vigil until mid to late this week.
I WILL be back for Saturday 9th for the Africa Action Civil Disobedience, God willing.
Jay
I think this issue with digestion is why my legs are so extremely swolen - severe edema. My guess is that my kidneys have lost the ability to process my food properly - eliminate salt, and balince protiens, etc. In any case, my body is a bit messed up and so that I can serve better in a few weeks, I regretably will be away from the Vigil until mid to late this week.
I WILL be back for Saturday 9th for the Africa Action Civil Disobedience, God willing.
Jay
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
HUNGER STRIKE SUSPENDED. War over? War beginning?
We must avoid the tragedy of April 30, 2006 - the rally at the Capitol - where we had no plan for the next day/week/month/quarter...! All that mobilization, that glorious army, so brilliantly and valiantly constructed, only to be allowed to dissipate, disband, and fade away. Tragic. Deadly.
I intend to do what little I can to help us keep our focus and readiness so that no delay or gap again cripples us this time. If within the next few weeks we see that it is to be war (discussion below), we must IMMEDIATELY capitalize on, BUILD ON the momentum of September 9th & 17th.
We must harness the energies of the masses that are mobilized on these two days. The attendees on these two days should be presented with contingency plans while they are still at the events!!!!!!!!!! They must not be allowed to leave thinking that they are...done, that things are fine now, like happened April 30th. The energies must not be allowed to dwindle like last time - April 30th! We must be ready. We must have plans. We must be ready to escalate, not evaporate, dissipate, strangulate...!
These two dates are not about hosting successful events. They are about stopping genocide. The organizers of these events must no longer afford themselves the luxury of restricting their responsibility to "hosting successful events." They are cast by circumstances to be the leaders of our nonviolent anti-genocide effort. THE LEADERS OF THE MAJOR NONPROFITS ARE MORALLY BOUND BY THEIR DEFACTO LEADERSHIP POSITIONS AND WILL BE MEASURED BY HISTORY BY THE OUTCOME, NOT THEIR INDIVIDUAL EVENTS. No longer can any cast off this role. They must embrace it and act accordingly. Or, stand down and be replaced by those who will lead us to win; FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION. They must lead as though their lives depended on it, because 3,000,000 lives do.
Bashir must not be allowed a victory in this round of his fight with the rest of the world. Stalemate at best is what he must be allowed. If to give Bush the mandate and support he needs, we need to mount mass hunger strikes, civil disobedience, campus sit ins, etc, late September, early October - let us be ready!!!!!!!!!!
In light of our current situation including the events of the last week the Hunger Strike is now fully suspended.
UN ambassador Bolton tonight says that the biggest problem may be implementing the UN resolution he expects passage of this week, quickly enough because Bashir may surprise all with a speedy approval of troops! War over.
But earlier this week Basher totally snubs the US in the form of Frazer as she goes to Sudan begging to meet with him. War about to begin?
It will be several weeks before we know whether it is victory or war and I can see no benefit to a continuation of the Hunger Strike during this period of unknown. I can serve better by staying on Vigil but regaining strength and body mass in case a renewal of the Hunger Strike is necessary.
My gratitude and thanks to Africa Action, Human Rights First, Save Darfur, Genocide Intervention, Stand, et al for effort regarding September 9th and 17th. I have been working every waking hour literally to boost traffic for these two all important events. I will continue to do so up until the last moment.
My body would desperately like to return to friends, a bed, roof and shower in Philadelphia to recover from the 45 days of no food and 102 days of round-the-clock Vigil, out in the elements, on the streets. But I want to maintain the Vigil at the White House and around Washington until it is clear whether it is victory, or war we are about to face. Not sure what I’ll decide.
Finally, we must not continue to fall in the trap of telling Washington - President and Congress what to do. That is their job. The last car that you bought, did you specify the design of seats and doors? No. You rightly expected that of the company. That is why organizations have executives. All that we must tell Bush and Congress is that we want a force of 20-30,000 with Ch. 7 equivalent mandate, fully funded and supported now, peace now, and repatriation to peaceful lands immediately for the people of Darfur. UN, AU, NATO, ultimately even US - that is their job to determine - not ours. And, no messing with China's oil - hands off!
Must we demand hands of Bashir, no regime change? Probably that is what we need to commit to him at the same time he is told privately – “gracefully let in the UN or we're taking you out.” But again, that is for Bush to decide. We need to be simple and clear to Bush - we want the genocide stopped and these people restored to their lives and land - now. Tell us what you need us to do to support you, and we'll move heaven and earth to do it.
This can be our finest hour. This MUST be our finest hour - we-the-people.
I intend to do what little I can to help us keep our focus and readiness so that no delay or gap again cripples us this time. If within the next few weeks we see that it is to be war (discussion below), we must IMMEDIATELY capitalize on, BUILD ON the momentum of September 9th & 17th.
We must harness the energies of the masses that are mobilized on these two days. The attendees on these two days should be presented with contingency plans while they are still at the events!!!!!!!!!! They must not be allowed to leave thinking that they are...done, that things are fine now, like happened April 30th. The energies must not be allowed to dwindle like last time - April 30th! We must be ready. We must have plans. We must be ready to escalate, not evaporate, dissipate, strangulate...!
These two dates are not about hosting successful events. They are about stopping genocide. The organizers of these events must no longer afford themselves the luxury of restricting their responsibility to "hosting successful events." They are cast by circumstances to be the leaders of our nonviolent anti-genocide effort. THE LEADERS OF THE MAJOR NONPROFITS ARE MORALLY BOUND BY THEIR DEFACTO LEADERSHIP POSITIONS AND WILL BE MEASURED BY HISTORY BY THE OUTCOME, NOT THEIR INDIVIDUAL EVENTS. No longer can any cast off this role. They must embrace it and act accordingly. Or, stand down and be replaced by those who will lead us to win; FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION. They must lead as though their lives depended on it, because 3,000,000 lives do.
Bashir must not be allowed a victory in this round of his fight with the rest of the world. Stalemate at best is what he must be allowed. If to give Bush the mandate and support he needs, we need to mount mass hunger strikes, civil disobedience, campus sit ins, etc, late September, early October - let us be ready!!!!!!!!!!
In light of our current situation including the events of the last week the Hunger Strike is now fully suspended.
UN ambassador Bolton tonight says that the biggest problem may be implementing the UN resolution he expects passage of this week, quickly enough because Bashir may surprise all with a speedy approval of troops! War over.
But earlier this week Basher totally snubs the US in the form of Frazer as she goes to Sudan begging to meet with him. War about to begin?
It will be several weeks before we know whether it is victory or war and I can see no benefit to a continuation of the Hunger Strike during this period of unknown. I can serve better by staying on Vigil but regaining strength and body mass in case a renewal of the Hunger Strike is necessary.
My gratitude and thanks to Africa Action, Human Rights First, Save Darfur, Genocide Intervention, Stand, et al for effort regarding September 9th and 17th. I have been working every waking hour literally to boost traffic for these two all important events. I will continue to do so up until the last moment.
My body would desperately like to return to friends, a bed, roof and shower in Philadelphia to recover from the 45 days of no food and 102 days of round-the-clock Vigil, out in the elements, on the streets. But I want to maintain the Vigil at the White House and around Washington until it is clear whether it is victory, or war we are about to face. Not sure what I’ll decide.
Finally, we must not continue to fall in the trap of telling Washington - President and Congress what to do. That is their job. The last car that you bought, did you specify the design of seats and doors? No. You rightly expected that of the company. That is why organizations have executives. All that we must tell Bush and Congress is that we want a force of 20-30,000 with Ch. 7 equivalent mandate, fully funded and supported now, peace now, and repatriation to peaceful lands immediately for the people of Darfur. UN, AU, NATO, ultimately even US - that is their job to determine - not ours. And, no messing with China's oil - hands off!
Must we demand hands of Bashir, no regime change? Probably that is what we need to commit to him at the same time he is told privately – “gracefully let in the UN or we're taking you out.” But again, that is for Bush to decide. We need to be simple and clear to Bush - we want the genocide stopped and these people restored to their lives and land - now. Tell us what you need us to do to support you, and we'll move heaven and earth to do it.
This can be our finest hour. This MUST be our finest hour - we-the-people.
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