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.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Monday, August 28, 2006
DARFUR: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr... WILL WE HEAR HIM, IN TIME?
Washington Round-the-Clock Vigil Day 100; Hunger Strike on Hold at Day 45 (800 calories per day) to maintain strength for VOLUME BUILDING FOR SEPTEMBER 9th and 17th.
DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR:
“There is nothing wrong with a traffic law which says you have to stop for a red light. But when a fire is raging, the fire truck goes right through the red light......Or, 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.”
I would bet my life [ I guess that I am betting my life on it :-) !!! ] that Civil Disobedience is ESSENTIAL as a COMPONENT of our efforts IF WE ARE TO STOP GENOCIDE. One of your fellow activists, from the Midwest emailed me inquiring as to my views. Our exchange follows (or it is on the web under 2 comments):
[email received by me tonight in response to an earlier email DARFUR: BASES LOADED. WE-THE-PEOPLE UP AT BAT ] --------------------
Dear Jay,
Thank you for the inspiring e-mail and the loud call to action during September. I look forward to seeing you out there. And thank you for the wealth of information and articles included in the email.
One note: You mentioned civil disobedience. I was just considering whether or not our objectives for the rally would be better advanced by this tactic. As you said Bush needs our help. We in Fort Wayne feel that above all the rally is intended to lay out our demands for action to be taken in Darfur AND to let Bush know that when he does take AGGRESSIVE action, he will have our support. I think that perhaps civil disobedience may be a counterintuitive measure in this instance.
[MY RESPONSE} 8:09 PM ------------------
Jay McGinley said... Dear Comrade,
How wonderful to hear from you. I believe I understand your concern. Is it that Civil Disobedience is generally considered PROTEST?
As you may know I have been in front of the White House or similar institutions in Washington on Vigil since May 14th, pretty much round the clock. Many times a day I am asked, "what are you PROTESTING?" I explain that I am "DEMONSTRATING" to SUPPORT and ENCOURAGE the president, and my fellow countrymen to higher levels of action! My point? That I believe that you and I see that SUPPORT and ENCOURAGEMENT is what the President needs. But the world community, our fellow countrymen, China, al BASHIR need to be our focus TOO!
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE, and/or HUNGER STRIKE are ESSENTIAL at this point:
* THEY ARE THE LOUDEST WE CAN SHOUT OUR SUPPORT FOR TROOPS ON THE GROUND. Why are they loud? Because like any loud, widely heard ADVERTISING... THEY COST A LOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
* Yes, but what about Civil Disobedience? WE MUST PROTEST WORLD INACTION / U.N. INACTION / WE-THE-PEOPLE INACTION / CHINA OBSTRUCTION / BASHIR OBSTRUCTION!!! And IN TRUTH, THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE. If we do NOT use Civil Disobedience, but use ONLY less "costly" means (meetings, concerts, rallies, 4 hr demonstrations), THAT is the message - that Darfur requires ONLY CHEAP SOLUTIONS.
* SOME OF US MUST INSPIRE / ENCOURAGE / PROVIDE EXAMPLE to our brothers and sisters so that they "see," and step up in HUGE NUMBERS, MORE FORCEFULLY THAN OTHERWISE THEY WOULD. This has always been the way, no? Civil Rights, Suffrage, stopping the Vietnam War....
Please tell me if I understood your thoughts, and your reaction to the above. I grow through such thoughtful people as you.
Your Brother,
Jay
-------------------------------------------
IN CLOSING:
* For the noble cause (but arguably less so than stopping the GENOCIDE OF 3,000,000) Georgetown U and U Washington, and Harvard U students HUNGER STRUCK last year and WON LIVING WAGES FOR THEIR CUSTODIAL AND FOOD WORKER STAFFS. (ERROR: Washington and Harvard were SIT INS, not Hunger Strikes per my earlier email.)
* FEW IF ANY SOCIAL CAUSES HAVE BEEN WON... WITHOUT SIGNIFICANT ANTIVIOLENT CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE. Suffrage? Civil Rights? Stopping Apartheid? Ending Vietnam War? Etc? Etc?
Why would we take that chance with the lives of these 3,000,000??????? Why ARE we taking a chance with 3,000,000 lives?
AND, WHY WOULD WE DEPRIVE PEOPLE OF TODAY OF THEIR FINEST HOUR??!?!?!?! I HAD THE OPPORTUNITY OF CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, AND STOPPING THE VIETNAM WAR. WILL WE DEPRIVE TODAY'S YOUTH OF STANDING UP FOR THEIR GREAT MOMENT IN HISTORY? WILL WE STAND IN THEIR WAY OF FINDING THEIR GREATNESS? Or, will we offer them the chance, and follow their lead?
Your brother,
Jay
ps: I'm in! Call me if I can help! In any way!
1. Antiviolent component of SEPT 17th in NYC; Elsewhere in US, and Abroad? THERE SHOULD BE!!!!!!!!
2. MASSIVE TURNOUT FOR SEPT 9th? THERE MUST BE!!!!!!!!
3. ESCALLATION ON SEPT. 10th AT THE WHITE HOUSE? CALL ME!!!!!!!!!!
pps: ANTIVIOLENT CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE: IF NOT FOR GENOCIDE, FOR WHAT!?!?! IF NOT NOW, WHEN? IF NOT US, IF NOT YOU, WHO?
DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR:
“There is nothing wrong with a traffic law which says you have to stop for a red light. But when a fire is raging, the fire truck goes right through the red light......Or, 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.”
I would bet my life [ I guess that I am betting my life on it :-) !!! ] that Civil Disobedience is ESSENTIAL as a COMPONENT of our efforts IF WE ARE TO STOP GENOCIDE. One of your fellow activists, from the Midwest emailed me inquiring as to my views. Our exchange follows (or it is on the web under 2 comments):
[email received by me tonight in response to an earlier email DARFUR: BASES LOADED. WE-THE-PEOPLE UP AT BAT ] --------------------
Dear Jay,
Thank you for the inspiring e-mail and the loud call to action during September. I look forward to seeing you out there. And thank you for the wealth of information and articles included in the email.
One note: You mentioned civil disobedience. I was just considering whether or not our objectives for the rally would be better advanced by this tactic. As you said Bush needs our help. We in Fort Wayne feel that above all the rally is intended to lay out our demands for action to be taken in Darfur AND to let Bush know that when he does take AGGRESSIVE action, he will have our support. I think that perhaps civil disobedience may be a counterintuitive measure in this instance.
[MY RESPONSE} 8:09 PM ------------------
Jay McGinley said... Dear Comrade,
How wonderful to hear from you. I believe I understand your concern. Is it that Civil Disobedience is generally considered PROTEST?
As you may know I have been in front of the White House or similar institutions in Washington on Vigil since May 14th, pretty much round the clock. Many times a day I am asked, "what are you PROTESTING?" I explain that I am "DEMONSTRATING" to SUPPORT and ENCOURAGE the president, and my fellow countrymen to higher levels of action! My point? That I believe that you and I see that SUPPORT and ENCOURAGEMENT is what the President needs. But the world community, our fellow countrymen, China, al BASHIR need to be our focus TOO!
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE, and/or HUNGER STRIKE are ESSENTIAL at this point:
* THEY ARE THE LOUDEST WE CAN SHOUT OUR SUPPORT FOR TROOPS ON THE GROUND. Why are they loud? Because like any loud, widely heard ADVERTISING... THEY COST A LOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
* Yes, but what about Civil Disobedience? WE MUST PROTEST WORLD INACTION / U.N. INACTION / WE-THE-PEOPLE INACTION / CHINA OBSTRUCTION / BASHIR OBSTRUCTION!!! And IN TRUTH, THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE. If we do NOT use Civil Disobedience, but use ONLY less "costly" means (meetings, concerts, rallies, 4 hr demonstrations), THAT is the message - that Darfur requires ONLY CHEAP SOLUTIONS.
* SOME OF US MUST INSPIRE / ENCOURAGE / PROVIDE EXAMPLE to our brothers and sisters so that they "see," and step up in HUGE NUMBERS, MORE FORCEFULLY THAN OTHERWISE THEY WOULD. This has always been the way, no? Civil Rights, Suffrage, stopping the Vietnam War....
Please tell me if I understood your thoughts, and your reaction to the above. I grow through such thoughtful people as you.
Your Brother,
Jay
-------------------------------------------
IN CLOSING:
* For the noble cause (but arguably less so than stopping the GENOCIDE OF 3,000,000) Georgetown U and U Washington, and Harvard U students HUNGER STRUCK last year and WON LIVING WAGES FOR THEIR CUSTODIAL AND FOOD WORKER STAFFS. (ERROR: Washington and Harvard were SIT INS, not Hunger Strikes per my earlier email.)
* FEW IF ANY SOCIAL CAUSES HAVE BEEN WON... WITHOUT SIGNIFICANT ANTIVIOLENT CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE. Suffrage? Civil Rights? Stopping Apartheid? Ending Vietnam War? Etc? Etc?
Why would we take that chance with the lives of these 3,000,000??????? Why ARE we taking a chance with 3,000,000 lives?
AND, WHY WOULD WE DEPRIVE PEOPLE OF TODAY OF THEIR FINEST HOUR??!?!?!?! I HAD THE OPPORTUNITY OF CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, AND STOPPING THE VIETNAM WAR. WILL WE DEPRIVE TODAY'S YOUTH OF STANDING UP FOR THEIR GREAT MOMENT IN HISTORY? WILL WE STAND IN THEIR WAY OF FINDING THEIR GREATNESS? Or, will we offer them the chance, and follow their lead?
Your brother,
Jay
ps: I'm in! Call me if I can help! In any way!
1. Antiviolent component of SEPT 17th in NYC; Elsewhere in US, and Abroad? THERE SHOULD BE!!!!!!!!
2. MASSIVE TURNOUT FOR SEPT 9th? THERE MUST BE!!!!!!!!
3. ESCALLATION ON SEPT. 10th AT THE WHITE HOUSE? CALL ME!!!!!!!!!!
pps: ANTIVIOLENT CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE: IF NOT FOR GENOCIDE, FOR WHAT!?!?! IF NOT NOW, WHEN? IF NOT US, IF NOT YOU, WHO?
DARFUR: BASES LOADED. WE-THE-PEOPLE UP AT BAT
Hunger Strike Day #45 and Holding - 700 calories / day so that I have the energy for a special round-the-clock project to marshal attendance for THE ALL IMPORTANT SEPT 9TH White House/AfricaAction.org and SEPT 17th SaveDarfur.org NYC. !!See now also: California, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Nevada, Oregon, Washington!!
Harvard’s Samantha Power’s Pulitzer Prize winning Genocide study of the last 100 years presents a clear conclusion: “the battle to stop genocide has thus been repeatedly lost… [because] Americans outside the executive branch were largely mute….” From "Problem from Hell."
I pray to God that we email, blog, write articles and DEVOUR THE NEWS for more than just its ENTERTAINMENT VALUE. Well, its crunch time now, FOR US.
Maybe not with the greatest skill or diplomacy in the world, but Bush and Bolton have gotten us up to bat - they are bringing the situation to a head at the UN. Per a number of really, really sobering articles recently, WE, THE US ARE IN A MUCH WEAKER POSITION THAN I HAD REALIZED (NY Times, Washington Institute for Near East Policy). Bases loaded, final inning, DARFUR IS BEHIND.
So, what are we the people, and what are we the US going to do? BUSH CANNOT DO THIS WITHOUT OUR HELP - MASSIVE HELP. With it, he and we cannot fail.
1. Failure is not an option. We must do whatever it takes - we the people - to get the Peace Keeping troops on the ground. NOW. If we lose this round in the UN: Bashir is FURTHER EMPOWERED, WE are FURTHER WEAKENED, 10,000s more in DARFUR are tortured and die BEFORE WE CAN SAY, "we shuda...." (Are we all emulating SAVE DARFUR MASS. in some way? Thanks http://www.savedarfurma.org/).
2. THE 9TH AND 17TH MUST BE EVEN HUGER. Such a mandate that the other countries of the world QUAKE and realize that BUSH MUST ACT; THAT WE HAVE GIVEN HIM NO CHOICE.
3. IF CHINA OBSTRUCTS? What do we do? DON'T WE PROTEST SEVERELY AT THE CHINESE EMBASSY, presuming that they obstruct in the Security Council? Or SEVERE DEMONSTRATIONS at whatever Embassy obstructs?
4. CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE ON SEPTEMBER 17th?!?!?! IS ANYONE CONTEMPLATING THIS? YOU WOULD IF IT WERE YOUR IMMEDIATE FAMILY IN THE CAMPS.
Contact me if you need to plan and discuss this.
Jay McGinley
84 356 6243
Harvard’s Samantha Power’s Pulitzer Prize winning Genocide study of the last 100 years presents a clear conclusion: “the battle to stop genocide has thus been repeatedly lost… [because] Americans outside the executive branch were largely mute….” From "Problem from Hell."
I pray to God that we email, blog, write articles and DEVOUR THE NEWS for more than just its ENTERTAINMENT VALUE. Well, its crunch time now, FOR US.
Maybe not with the greatest skill or diplomacy in the world, but Bush and Bolton have gotten us up to bat - they are bringing the situation to a head at the UN. Per a number of really, really sobering articles recently, WE, THE US ARE IN A MUCH WEAKER POSITION THAN I HAD REALIZED (NY Times, Washington Institute for Near East Policy). Bases loaded, final inning, DARFUR IS BEHIND.
So, what are we the people, and what are we the US going to do? BUSH CANNOT DO THIS WITHOUT OUR HELP - MASSIVE HELP. With it, he and we cannot fail.
1. Failure is not an option. We must do whatever it takes - we the people - to get the Peace Keeping troops on the ground. NOW. If we lose this round in the UN: Bashir is FURTHER EMPOWERED, WE are FURTHER WEAKENED, 10,000s more in DARFUR are tortured and die BEFORE WE CAN SAY, "we shuda...." (Are we all emulating SAVE DARFUR MASS. in some way? Thanks http://www.savedarfurma.org/).
2. THE 9TH AND 17TH MUST BE EVEN HUGER. Such a mandate that the other countries of the world QUAKE and realize that BUSH MUST ACT; THAT WE HAVE GIVEN HIM NO CHOICE.
3. IF CHINA OBSTRUCTS? What do we do? DON'T WE PROTEST SEVERELY AT THE CHINESE EMBASSY, presuming that they obstruct in the Security Council? Or SEVERE DEMONSTRATIONS at whatever Embassy obstructs?
4. CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE ON SEPTEMBER 17th?!?!?! IS ANYONE CONTEMPLATING THIS? YOU WOULD IF IT WERE YOUR IMMEDIATE FAMILY IN THE CAMPS.
Contact me if you need to plan and discuss this.
Jay McGinley
84 356 6243
Saturday, August 26, 2006
1ST REALLY BAD DAY; Hunger Strike Day 43, Day/Night Vigil Day 95
It is not that it is so uncomfortable, but my productivity is about 40%. The fact that I lugged my stuff literally 80 blocks on Vigil yesterday probably contributes. :-(
This is the first Saturday I've missed in the park. I continue on a massive communication campaign - building a fax database of about 5000 Places of Worship and sending them posters of the Sept 9th and Sept 17 events. REALLY HARD given the way my mind is on 40%. The fact that in about 5 days I've just survived on naps sitting up at the computer is probably a factor too. I am not taking any satisfaction that this is treading on our laws about faxing. I take responsibility that given the profoundly short time, compounded by the fact of school just getting in session, people just returning from holiday - URGENT MEASURES ARE REQUIRED TO GET THE WORD OUT. If it is to be prison, and huge fines over this - so be it. But, let's stop the Genocide - NOW.
During this intirrim period when I am working 3 major campaigns - Vigil, Hunger Strike, Media/Fax/Promotion campagn - I am taking up to 1000 calories per day to try to keep enought energy going. Also I take them to slow my discent - I need to last and I'm buring quite a few more calories than if I were just sittiing under a tree somewhere.
By the way, as I may have mentioned, for the last several weeks I've Vigiled at a variety of locations - Washington Post, NPR, the Methodist Building (accross the street from the Capitol onn the east) housing major faith groups. This feels VERY correct at this juncture. With as many Hunger Strike days as I have under my belt (sorry) it is an important injection of hope, commitment, and prayer - to go to these different places.
As to regular "diet" - water and the following every day - multivitimin, salt packet every 3 days, 2 packets emergenC every day, and a teaspoon or two of peanutbutter (a friend thinks it will protect my brain from being consumed).
Nights are now usually spent under the stars (on top of the ants) vigiling in the next park up from the White House because they have Power Outlets (cell phone and laptop), and so far none has been provided by George and Laura. :-)
Just got word of some new internet press. NewsBlaze - God bless them. Also, the Blog is getting important hits from around the world.
Spirits remain unchanged - GREAT.
Really good news in the press what with Bush sending Lendayi Frazer/REALLY commiting himself!!! - really bad news (see yesterday's post re NY Times) - big concern that the postive press will cause people to relax. Death that would be.
Hey, I still tell folks that I have no support. Relative to what a campaign like this should have, that is true. But you friends / heroes know who you are. We love you and are deeply grateful for you.
THE END OF GENOCIDE IS WITHIN OUR GRASP. WE MUST KEEP GOING WITH EVERY OUNCE OF STRENGTH. PLEASE.
Failure is not an option. THERE IS NO OCTOBER FOR DARFUR.
Jay
This is the first Saturday I've missed in the park. I continue on a massive communication campaign - building a fax database of about 5000 Places of Worship and sending them posters of the Sept 9th and Sept 17 events. REALLY HARD given the way my mind is on 40%. The fact that in about 5 days I've just survived on naps sitting up at the computer is probably a factor too. I am not taking any satisfaction that this is treading on our laws about faxing. I take responsibility that given the profoundly short time, compounded by the fact of school just getting in session, people just returning from holiday - URGENT MEASURES ARE REQUIRED TO GET THE WORD OUT. If it is to be prison, and huge fines over this - so be it. But, let's stop the Genocide - NOW.
During this intirrim period when I am working 3 major campaigns - Vigil, Hunger Strike, Media/Fax/Promotion campagn - I am taking up to 1000 calories per day to try to keep enought energy going. Also I take them to slow my discent - I need to last and I'm buring quite a few more calories than if I were just sittiing under a tree somewhere.
By the way, as I may have mentioned, for the last several weeks I've Vigiled at a variety of locations - Washington Post, NPR, the Methodist Building (accross the street from the Capitol onn the east) housing major faith groups. This feels VERY correct at this juncture. With as many Hunger Strike days as I have under my belt (sorry) it is an important injection of hope, commitment, and prayer - to go to these different places.
As to regular "diet" - water and the following every day - multivitimin, salt packet every 3 days, 2 packets emergenC every day, and a teaspoon or two of peanutbutter (a friend thinks it will protect my brain from being consumed).
Nights are now usually spent under the stars (on top of the ants) vigiling in the next park up from the White House because they have Power Outlets (cell phone and laptop), and so far none has been provided by George and Laura. :-)
Just got word of some new internet press. NewsBlaze - God bless them. Also, the Blog is getting important hits from around the world.
Spirits remain unchanged - GREAT.
Really good news in the press what with Bush sending Lendayi Frazer/REALLY commiting himself!!! - really bad news (see yesterday's post re NY Times) - big concern that the postive press will cause people to relax. Death that would be.
Hey, I still tell folks that I have no support. Relative to what a campaign like this should have, that is true. But you friends / heroes know who you are. We love you and are deeply grateful for you.
THE END OF GENOCIDE IS WITHIN OUR GRASP. WE MUST KEEP GOING WITH EVERY OUNCE OF STRENGTH. PLEASE.
Failure is not an option. THERE IS NO OCTOBER FOR DARFUR.
Jay
Friday, August 25, 2006
NOW, WE HELP BUSH, OR ITS "GAME OVER;" Hunger Strike Day 42
OK, now without question Bush has done more than any other president, AND MORE THAN WE-THE-PEOPLE to stop this Genocide.
IMPLICIT IN THIS MUST-READ NY TIMES ARTICLE (U.S. to Press Sudan’s Leader to Accept U.N. Force): Bush CANNOT DO IT, END THE GENOCIDE, WITHOUT A HUGE MANDATE FROM US SEPTEMBER 9TH AT THE WHITE HOUSE, AND SEPTEMBER 17TH IN MANHATTAN.
My generation had its time to be great - ending the Vietnam War, gaining Civil Rights.
DARFUR IS THE GREAT CHALLANGE, AND THE GREAT OPPORTUNITY OF OUR TIME. History will judge us on this, forever.
IMPLICIT IN THIS MUST-READ NY TIMES ARTICLE (U.S. to Press Sudan’s Leader to Accept U.N. Force): Bush CANNOT DO IT, END THE GENOCIDE, WITHOUT A HUGE MANDATE FROM US SEPTEMBER 9TH AT THE WHITE HOUSE, AND SEPTEMBER 17TH IN MANHATTAN.
My generation had its time to be great - ending the Vietnam War, gaining Civil Rights.
DARFUR IS THE GREAT CHALLANGE, AND THE GREAT OPPORTUNITY OF OUR TIME. History will judge us on this, forever.
Monday, August 21, 2006
IT JUST UNFOLDED BEFORE ME. Hunger Strike Day 38; Vigil Day 90
[ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AT:
http://202.113.16.117/cgi-bin/bbs/bbstcon?board=Pictures&file=M.1156166484.A]
My/our dear brothers and sisters,
FIRST OF ALL: I implore you to really search your hearts. I believe that the opportunity for personal LIFE represented by the 9th (Africa Action - White House Demonstration) and 17th (NYC/World Wide Demonstrations) events I've mentioned are the equivalent of our shot of achieving Civil Rights, or stopping Apartheid.... DON'T MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY. DON'T. You'll always regret it.
HEALTH: All systems go. Ok, yes, quite a bit of girth is going. But NO signs of long term damage yet. Amazing. A number of people after they talk to me say, "Your health is because God is using you." I think this is True.
MENTAL: Quite sure I have never been quite as sharp.
EMOTIONAL: Hmm. I wouldn't trade any 5 minutes of the last 3+ months or the next 1.3 months for $1,000,000,000. True. But Jay, you could use the $ to do so much good! No. $$$$ are not going to save Darfur, or us. There is enormous stress, fatigue, deep down worry. But oh my gosh, the sense of being in the flow, of being an instrument being used by Good, Love, Truth, LIFE. Just like Jesus said. No, no sense of euphoria or anything like it. But it remains awesome. Heaven.
SPIRITUAL: In the 5-50 deep conversations I have each day in the park, it is far from rare that the comment is made of me, "you are profoundly humble." I think that is True. I love, I LOVE the Truth, and the Truth is only possible with profound humility. So I think it is Truth, not arrogance, that has me say - I am achieving a very, very high level of spirituality. When I imagine what Jesus, Gandhi, King... will say of me today, when we meet in the distant future, I think it will be quite respectful, approving, and pleased.
ENVIRONMENTAL: The conversation I've heard tell of is something like, "Mother Teresa, I couldn't do what you do for a million dollars!" To which M. Teresa replied, "Me either!" I love my Darfur family. I love my family of US. I love my global family. THIS is where my mind/body/spirit/heart is - saving Darfur/us from Hell-on-earth in the variety of forms we are in it. Sure the environment is tough, but there haven't been 5 minutes total that it has been a negative to me. Amazing. I can remember as a nice, but terribly spoiled child being so clear in my mind. "If I lose all the material supports and comforts to which I have become accustomed, I will prefer death;" I was CERTAIN. This was so clear and tangible to me then. Hmm. Boy, was I wrong. I HAVE LOST NOTHING. I HAVE GAINED EVERYTHING.
AN UNFORESEEN OPPORTUNITY FOR ME TO HELP MY MANY FAMILIES HAS UNFOLDED BEFORE ME: Consequently I need undivided computer time for several days as round the clock as I can muster. Two days at least. Maybe four. I'll be totally out of touch with anyone until Wednesday or so. Very exciting prospect to help be a catalyst to stop this Genocide. NOTHING to fear I promise. I promise. Trust me. Involves maybe HUGE social risk for me, and me alone. But I see nothing but upside, maybe HUGE for Darfur and ALL of my global Families. It is best that I not explain until later in the week to those of you that are close to me. How big is our family now? 6+ billion? Jay
THE BEGINNING & THE END IN SEPTEMBER 2006
SEPT 9TH 12:00 NOON, WHITE HOUSE LAFAYETTE PARK... IGNITE THE FINAL VICTORY
This DEMONSTRATION and (for we who so-choose) CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE LEADING TO ARREST is absolutely crucial for enabling SEPT 17th TO DEFINITIVELY CAUSE THE UN TROOPS TO EMBARK FOR DARFUR.
FLIER WITH DETAILS click
CONTACT THEM: mobilize@africaaction.org (202) 546-7961
SUNDAY 9/10 - FURTHER IGNITION
IF YOU NEED (AS I DO) TO BE EVEN MORE CERTAIN OF A FINAL-SEPTEMBER-VICTORY, JOIN ME IN AN ESCALLATION OF SEPTEMBER 9TH'S CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE. CONTACT ME.
Finally... D DAY - SEPT 17, !!See now also: California, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Nevada, Oregon, Washington!!
THE ABSOLUTE END OF GENOCIDE - ABSOLUTE VICTORY OVER EL BASHIR'S OBSTRUCTION OF UN:
FOR GOD'S SAKE BE PREPARED, AND DO IT. (YOU DID FOR CIVIL RIGHTS, LIVING WAGES, ENDING APARTHEID...)
THERE'S NO OCTOBER FOR DARFUR
CLICK left for details
CLICK left for detials
This DEMONSTRATION and (for we who so-choose) CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE LEADING TO ARREST is absolutely crucial for enabling SEPT 17th TO DEFINITIVELY CAUSE THE UN TROOPS TO EMBARK FOR DARFUR.FLIER WITH DETAILS click
CONTACT THEM: mobilize@africaaction.org (202) 546-7961
SUNDAY 9/10 - FURTHER IGNITION
IF YOU NEED (AS I DO) TO BE EVEN MORE CERTAIN OF A FINAL-SEPTEMBER-VICTORY, JOIN ME IN AN ESCALLATION OF SEPTEMBER 9TH'S CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE. CONTACT ME.
Finally... D DAY - SEPT 17, !!See now also: California, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Nevada, Oregon, Washington!!
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'S NO OCTOBER FOR DARFUR
CLICK left for details
CLICK left for detialsFriday, August 18, 2006
DARFUR HUNGER STRIKE: PRESS RELEASE. Hunger Strike Day 36, Vigil Day 88
For Immediate Release Contact: Jay McGinley, 484-356-6243
August 18, 2006 jymcginley@cs.com
Darfur Hunger Striker to Abstain from Eating
Until UN Peace Keepers Deployed
RESCUE RESTORE DARFUR
STAND WITH DARFUR - WHITE HOUSE
Stand With Darfur-White House II
Washington, DC – A Philadelphia man who has been on round the clock Vigil for Darfur at the White House since May 14th 88 days, announced today that he will continue his Hunger Strike until 20-30,000 UN Peace Keepers are deployed to Darfur. “Our Darfur family is out of time,” said Jay McGinley, a 54 year old businessperson from Philadelphia. “I am throwing my lot in fully with them to attempt to bring the urgency of their need to Washington, and to my brothers and sisters throughout the US. We must make Sept. 9th at the White House, and Sept. 17th at the Word-wide demonstrations – their salvation. There will be no other chance, for them or us (below).”
In the last 2 weeks more aid workers have been killed than in the previous 3 years of war. This predictable escalation will drive the international aid workers away forcing in estimated 25,000-50,000 deaths per week among the 3,000,000 in the concentration camps along the border with Chad. According to SaveDarfur.org, a coalition of 170 Faith, Humanitarian and Human Rights organizations, nearly three years into the crisis, the western Sudanese region of Darfur is acknowledged to be a humanitarian and human rights tragedy of the first order. The humanitarian, security and political situation continues to deteriorate: atrocities continue, people are still dying in large numbers of malnutrition and disease, and a new famine is feared. According to reports by the World Food Program, the United Nations and the Coalition for International Justice, 3.5 million people are now hungry, 2.5 million have been displaced due to violence, and 400,000 people have died in Darfur thus far. The international community is failing to protect civilians or to influence the Sudanese government to do so.
Darfur is at the final tipping point now:
1. With the aid workers now being killed and thereby driven away, death tolls will hit 30,000 per week.
2. The Sudan and the international community are three months overdue in enforcing the May 5 Darfur Peace Agreement,
3. The African Union force of 7,000 is departing from Darfur October 1, so even this pitiful fig leaf will be removed from the Genocide,
4. Sept. 9th Civil Disobedience at the White House is one of two huge opportunities we have left – AfricaAction.org (“Two years….”). Must be a massive success to spark the activism for Sept. 17th.
5. September 17th is our last chance (dayfordarfur.org) as US Citizens to register our unmistakable, life-giving mandate for immediate rescue of the people from Genocide. September 17th is the day of international demonstrations, most importantly in NYC, as organized by the Day for Darfur and Save Darfur Coalition (SaveDarfur.org),
6. At a news briefing last Friday State Department Sean McCormack signaled administration readiness to get the troops to Darfur. "The A.U. has said that they want that turnover to take place by October first. That date's coming up on us real fast. We support the A.U. in that, and we're pushing hard at the U.N. and elsewhere to try to make that happen. That ultimately is going to, along with the good faith steps by parties to the Darfur peace agreement and the comprehensive peace agreement, bring greater peace and stability to Sudan," he said. We must hold them, ourselves, to it. Sept 9th. Sept 17th.
McGinley has been Hunger Strike at the White House for 36 days this summer. He figures that based on his current body weight, he will be able to last long enough, until the end of September. “Darfur is my family. Darfur is our family. I am a man of anti-violence so Hunger Strike is the strongest method at my disposal to help my US brothers and sisters to rise to the level of humanity, of brotherhood that I know we aspire to. We must make the September 17th worldwide demonstrations the end of this atrocity, of this Genocide in Darfur. There is no more time.”
August 18, 2006 jymcginley@cs.com
Darfur Hunger Striker to Abstain from Eating
Until UN Peace Keepers Deployed
RESCUE RESTORE DARFUR
STAND WITH DARFUR - WHITE HOUSE
Stand With Darfur-White House II
Washington, DC – A Philadelphia man who has been on round the clock Vigil for Darfur at the White House since May 14th 88 days, announced today that he will continue his Hunger Strike until 20-30,000 UN Peace Keepers are deployed to Darfur. “Our Darfur family is out of time,” said Jay McGinley, a 54 year old businessperson from Philadelphia. “I am throwing my lot in fully with them to attempt to bring the urgency of their need to Washington, and to my brothers and sisters throughout the US. We must make Sept. 9th at the White House, and Sept. 17th at the Word-wide demonstrations – their salvation. There will be no other chance, for them or us (below).”
In the last 2 weeks more aid workers have been killed than in the previous 3 years of war. This predictable escalation will drive the international aid workers away forcing in estimated 25,000-50,000 deaths per week among the 3,000,000 in the concentration camps along the border with Chad. According to SaveDarfur.org, a coalition of 170 Faith, Humanitarian and Human Rights organizations, nearly three years into the crisis, the western Sudanese region of Darfur is acknowledged to be a humanitarian and human rights tragedy of the first order. The humanitarian, security and political situation continues to deteriorate: atrocities continue, people are still dying in large numbers of malnutrition and disease, and a new famine is feared. According to reports by the World Food Program, the United Nations and the Coalition for International Justice, 3.5 million people are now hungry, 2.5 million have been displaced due to violence, and 400,000 people have died in Darfur thus far. The international community is failing to protect civilians or to influence the Sudanese government to do so.
Darfur is at the final tipping point now:
1. With the aid workers now being killed and thereby driven away, death tolls will hit 30,000 per week.
2. The Sudan and the international community are three months overdue in enforcing the May 5 Darfur Peace Agreement,
3. The African Union force of 7,000 is departing from Darfur October 1, so even this pitiful fig leaf will be removed from the Genocide,
4. Sept. 9th Civil Disobedience at the White House is one of two huge opportunities we have left – AfricaAction.org (“Two years….”). Must be a massive success to spark the activism for Sept. 17th.
5. September 17th is our last chance (dayfordarfur.org) as US Citizens to register our unmistakable, life-giving mandate for immediate rescue of the people from Genocide. September 17th is the day of international demonstrations, most importantly in NYC, as organized by the Day for Darfur and Save Darfur Coalition (SaveDarfur.org),
6. At a news briefing last Friday State Department Sean McCormack signaled administration readiness to get the troops to Darfur. "The A.U. has said that they want that turnover to take place by October first. That date's coming up on us real fast. We support the A.U. in that, and we're pushing hard at the U.N. and elsewhere to try to make that happen. That ultimately is going to, along with the good faith steps by parties to the Darfur peace agreement and the comprehensive peace agreement, bring greater peace and stability to Sudan," he said. We must hold them, ourselves, to it. Sept 9th. Sept 17th.
McGinley has been Hunger Strike at the White House for 36 days this summer. He figures that based on his current body weight, he will be able to last long enough, until the end of September. “Darfur is my family. Darfur is our family. I am a man of anti-violence so Hunger Strike is the strongest method at my disposal to help my US brothers and sisters to rise to the level of humanity, of brotherhood that I know we aspire to. We must make the September 17th worldwide demonstrations the end of this atrocity, of this Genocide in Darfur. There is no more time.”
PRESS. THANK GOD. Hunger Strike Day 36, Vigil Day 88
Some courageous souls are giving visibility to the tactics employed in this Vigil and Hunger Strike. Tactics that have been employed by MANY in ALL successful human rights struggles. Thank God for the courage and help of these folks. May others see, find courage and implement... in time for the 3,000,000:
ROSEMARY AT:
KNICKERBOCKER NEWS
Tuesday, August 15, 2006 The Series: Jay's Hunger Strike for Darfur, Part 1
Wednesday, August 16, 2006 The Series: Jay's Hunger Strike for Darfur, Part 2
Thursday, August 17, 2006 The Series: Jay's Hunger Strike for Darfur, Part 3
CAUSES OF INTERST
Full press release
GENOCIDE INTERVENTION FUND - NEWSLETTER AUGUST 18, 2006
A Philadelphia man announced today that he will continue his hunger strike until 20,000-30,000 UN peacekeepers are deployed to Darfur. Jay McGinley, 54, has been on a round-the-clock vigil for Darfur at the White House since May 14, but has recently decided to escalate his tactics. “Our Darfur family is out of time,” said the 54 year-old. “I am throwing my lot in fully with them to attempt to bring the urgency of their need to Washington, and to my brothers and sisters throughout the US and the world.”
ALAN AT NEWSBLAZE.COM - FULL PRESS RELEASE GOING OUT ON GOOGLE NEWS!
FrauBudgie at Red Hot Cuppa Politics - Hunger Strike and Antiviolent Tactics
Kansas City infoZine - Full press release!
ROSEMARY AT:
KNICKERBOCKER NEWS
Tuesday, August 15, 2006 The Series: Jay's Hunger Strike for Darfur, Part 1
Wednesday, August 16, 2006 The Series: Jay's Hunger Strike for Darfur, Part 2
Thursday, August 17, 2006 The Series: Jay's Hunger Strike for Darfur, Part 3
CAUSES OF INTERST
Full press release
GENOCIDE INTERVENTION FUND - NEWSLETTER AUGUST 18, 2006
A Philadelphia man announced today that he will continue his hunger strike until 20,000-30,000 UN peacekeepers are deployed to Darfur. Jay McGinley, 54, has been on a round-the-clock vigil for Darfur at the White House since May 14, but has recently decided to escalate his tactics. “Our Darfur family is out of time,” said the 54 year-old. “I am throwing my lot in fully with them to attempt to bring the urgency of their need to Washington, and to my brothers and sisters throughout the US and the world.”
ALAN AT NEWSBLAZE.COM - FULL PRESS RELEASE GOING OUT ON GOOGLE NEWS!
FrauBudgie at Red Hot Cuppa Politics - Hunger Strike and Antiviolent Tactics
Kansas City infoZine - Full press release!
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
SOME SUPPORT FOR THE FIGHT-TO-WIN. Hunger Strike Day 33, Vigil Day 85
10/2/06 NOTE: NEW BLOG - DARFUR Dying for Heroes <-click!
Our sister Rosemary has done a wonderful job with two of her news outlets. The links below are her final publications:
http://knickerbockernews.blogspot.com/ and
http://capitalistrosie.blogspot.com/2006/08/series-jays-hunger-strike-for-darfur.html
Some Sudanese brothers and sisters have taken interest in the Hunger Strike and Vigil. They kindly have brought cold water, have included information on sudaneseonline.com. Mr. Mohamed has built a site featuring the campaign that is linked to sudaneseonline.com. He says that the links have received many hits among the Sudanese community. Four of them have funded an additional month of online access for the campaign.
Our sister Rosemary has done a wonderful job with two of her news outlets. The links below are her final publications:
http://knickerbockernews.blogspot.com/ and
http://capitalistrosie.blogspot.com/2006/08/series-jays-hunger-strike-for-darfur.html
Some Sudanese brothers and sisters have taken interest in the Hunger Strike and Vigil. They kindly have brought cold water, have included information on sudaneseonline.com. Mr. Mohamed has built a site featuring the campaign that is linked to sudaneseonline.com. He says that the links have received many hits among the Sudanese community. Four of them have funded an additional month of online access for the campaign.
Monday, August 14, 2006
DARFUR - HOW MANY DIE BEFORE NGO'S/COALITIONS STEP UP?
Day 32 Hunger Strike, Day 84 Vigil at White House
I do not believe that the NGOs/COALITIONS are poplulated by cowardly, self-serving people. BUT HOW ELSE DOES ONE INTERPRET THE FACTS THAT DEPITE PROOF THAT THEIR TACTICS OF REPORTS, EMAILS, POSTCARDS, DIVESTMENT, 4 HOUR DEMONSTRATIONS, 5 MINUTE DIE-INS... ARE FAILING THEY DO NOT ESCALATE?!?!?!?!!?
LIVES MUST BE PUT ON THE LINE TO STOP GENOCIDE. HUNGER STRIKES. MASS CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE, MASS ARRESTS.
Darfur, Three Months Hence: Extrapolating from Current Conditions
Eric Reeves' latest full-length analysis is now available both on his site and on Sudan Tribune; here is the second section (the first being devoted to a "hypothetical dispatch" from this coming November--i.e., three months from now)...
HOW PLAUSIBLE A “HYPOTHETICAL” ACCOUNT?
Could conditions in Darfur deteriorate so rapidly? Could the already appalling security crisis grow to such threatening proportions? Could human mortality---already exceeding 500,000---accelerate? (See my global mortality assessment of April 2006 at http://www.sudanreeves.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=102.) Could the residual destructiveness of violence that became genocidal over three years ago increase even further? Could the international community remain inert as these realities became relentlessly clearer?
The only answers available are those deriving from current assessments of conditions on the ground in Darfur and eastern Chad, as well as statements by major international actors; but these suggest there is neither exaggeration nor implausibility to any feature to this hypothetical account.
DANGER TO HUMANITARIANS IN DARFUR AND EASTERN CHAD
The warnings concerning violence against humanitarians and the continuing attenuation of humanitarian access could not be more blunt. Citing a “more than 100% increase in violent clashes [in Darfur] in the first half of 2006 compared to the first half of last year,” UN humanitarian aid chief Jan Egeland declared:
“The situation in Darfur was going from really bad to catastrophic.” (Jan Egeland interview, August 10, 2006, transcript from UN Department of Public Information [Geneva])
Mike McDonagh, senior humanitarian affairs officer at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Khartoum, declared:
"During the second half of July [2006], we lost more aid workers than over the previous two years.” (UN Integrated Regional Information Networks [IRIN] [dateline: Nairobi], August 3, 2006)
More recently IRIN reports:
“July was the most dangerous month of the three-year-old conflict in Darfur for aid workers, four major international humanitarian agencies working in the region said on Tuesday [August 8, 2006]. Violence has escalated since the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement on 5 May [2006] between the government and the largest rebel group. Eight Sudanese humanitarian workers were killed in July alone. The increasing insecurity is also limiting the ability of aid agencies to reach people in need, with potentially disastrous consequences, warned the four agencies---Care, International Rescue Committee (IRC), Oxfam International, and World Vision.” (IRIN [dateline: Nairobi], August 10, 2006)
This assessment was echoed by Manuel da Silva, United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan:
"‘The level of violence being faced by humanitarian workers in Darfur is unprecedented,’ da Silva [said]. ‘The situation is made even more serious by the fact that the need for humanitarian assistance is increasing while our ability to respond is being ever more restricted,’ da Silva added.”
(IRIN [dateline: Nairobi], August 10, 2006)
The view is the same from the African Union: Baba Gana Kingibe, Special Representative of the AU Commission Chairperson, declared bluntly in el-Fasher [capital of North Darfur], “Security in Darfur ‘is plummeting’” (Associated Press [dateline: el-Fasher], August 7, 2006).
What Kingibe did not discuss is the continuing failure of the AU to fashion a working cease-fire commission in Darfur per the terms of the May 5 Abuja agreement---or to publish even the most rudimentary reports about massive, ongoing military violence in North Darfur. This includes active collaboration between Khartoum’s regular military forces and those of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) faction of Minni Minawi, now Special Assistant to National Islamic Front President and Field Marshal Omar el-Bashir. Nor does Kingibe discuss the implications of the AU providing transport and accommodations to Minawi’s commanders in the field, even those implicated in recent atrocities.
To his credit, Kingibe has finally spoken out against the numerous and highly credible charges of torture used as a weapon of war by Minawi’s forces. But this came only a week after authoritative accounts of atrocities by Minawi’s forces had been published by Amnesty International and Refugees International. The latter reported:
“One woman in the Tawilla camp [North Darfur] described the nature of these [threatened] punishments [of non-signatories to the DPA]. She said that hundreds of Minawi’s soldiers entered her village and started shooting. They went inside the houses one by one shooting the men, including her husband, and beating or raping the women and girls. The soldiers took whatever they could find---clothing, shoes, money, livestock. Her story is remarkably consistent with thousands of others in the region that detail targeted executions of men and violent, forced displacement.” (Refugees International, “Town in North Darfur Reflects Changing Nature of Conflict,” July 24, 2006)
Amnesty International reports that:
“The African Union peacekeeping force in al-Fasher has not only been unable to protect civilians in Korma [North Darfur], but has yet to investigate the killings. Civilians reported the attacks to [the African Union] on 5 July [2006], but the SLA (Minni Minawi) reportedly opposed [the AU’s] going to Korma.” (Amnesty International, “Korma: Yet more attacks on civilians” [AI Index AFR 54/026/2006])
Moreover, the AU has lost all initiative in patrolling within camps or rural areas: there is no AU access in the vast majority of camps, many fewer patrols are being mounted, morale is abysmal, and few of the troops deployed are looking to more than a September exit. A senior UN aid official on the ground in North Darfur estimates privately that unchecked internecine fighting between SLA factions has left over 60% of North Darfur inaccessible to humanitarian operations for the past two months. IRIN reports Turid Laegreid, a senior UN humanitarian official in el-Fasher, as declaring that “access to the local population in North Darfur is at an all-time low” (IRIN [dateline: Nairobi] August 1, 2006).
And while North Darfur is currently the most threatened of the three Darfur states, the potential for explosions in both South and West Darfur is all too clear. Indeed, last week Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), the largest international humanitarian presence in Darfur, reported that in West Darfur,
“Security incidents have led to the evacuation of our teams in Serif Umra and two projects in the Jebel Marra, as well as the interruption of mobile clinics, and the limitation in the referral of emergency cases to surgical facilities in other areas. [ ] Many MSF activities are currently suspended, leaving thousands of patients untreated everyday. MSF has been attacked in the past weeks in several locations in all regions of Darfur.” ("Increased insecurity hampers MSF medical assistance to the population of Darfur," MSF [press] release, August 3, 2006)
Not only is medical care being denied to desperate civilians, but food aid as well:
“The UN World Food Program was unable to deliver supplies to 400,000 people in July, up from 290,000 in June.” (Associated Press [dateline: el-Fasher, North Darfur], August 8, 2006)
The number of people in Darfur not receiving food aid in mid-August is over 500,000 and rising rapidly. And this represents those currently targeted for food delivery, not the global Darfuri population in need.
Conditions in eastern Chad in many ways mirror those in Darfur, as the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) declared in an August 8, 2006 press release in Geneva:
“UNHCR is very concerned about the safety of humanitarian workers in eastern Chad following a deterioration in the security situation there. We are particularly worried about the situation in and around the town of Guereda, which is located about 65 kilometres from the border with Sudan.”
“Last Friday, seven men brandishing assault rifles and wearing military uniforms broke into the compound of a non-governmental organisation in Guereda. Three aid workers were hit in the head with rifle butts and one of them was later evacuated to a French military hospital in Abeche, capital of eastern Chad. [ ] This is the seventh time humanitarian workers have been targeted in the Guereda area since May. Three weeks ago, two vehicles from another NGO were stolen. At the beginning of July, two UNHCR cars were stolen from our Guereda office after armed men overpowered the guards.” [ ]
“We are extremely concerned about these incidents. The growing insecurity is making it more difficult and more dangerous for humanitarian agencies and their staff to provide assistance to Sudanese refugees from Darfur in the area. Some international and local humanitarian agencies are working with only essential staff and have reduced their activities in the camps.”
None of these trends will be reversed in the foreseeable future; on the contrary, all evidence suggests a further deterioration of security. The UN’s “Darfur Peace Agreement Monitor” (July 2006) gives a grim assessment of the fundamentally changed dynamic of violence on the ground:
“The increasing fragmentation of armed groups has made humanitarian action more difficult and dangerous. Previously, humanitarian actors used an established notification system to inform armed groups of their movements. During the past month, the number of military actors increased, combat zones multiplied, and chains of command disintegrated. In some cases, established notification systems have failed completely, dramatically increasing the humanitarian actors’ operational risks.” (UN “DPA Monitor,” July 2006, page 11)
I do not believe that the NGOs/COALITIONS are poplulated by cowardly, self-serving people. BUT HOW ELSE DOES ONE INTERPRET THE FACTS THAT DEPITE PROOF THAT THEIR TACTICS OF REPORTS, EMAILS, POSTCARDS, DIVESTMENT, 4 HOUR DEMONSTRATIONS, 5 MINUTE DIE-INS... ARE FAILING THEY DO NOT ESCALATE?!?!?!?!!?
LIVES MUST BE PUT ON THE LINE TO STOP GENOCIDE. HUNGER STRIKES. MASS CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE, MASS ARRESTS.
Darfur, Three Months Hence: Extrapolating from Current Conditions
Eric Reeves' latest full-length analysis is now available both on his site and on Sudan Tribune; here is the second section (the first being devoted to a "hypothetical dispatch" from this coming November--i.e., three months from now)...
HOW PLAUSIBLE A “HYPOTHETICAL” ACCOUNT?
Could conditions in Darfur deteriorate so rapidly? Could the already appalling security crisis grow to such threatening proportions? Could human mortality---already exceeding 500,000---accelerate? (See my global mortality assessment of April 2006 at http://www.sudanreeves.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=102.) Could the residual destructiveness of violence that became genocidal over three years ago increase even further? Could the international community remain inert as these realities became relentlessly clearer?
The only answers available are those deriving from current assessments of conditions on the ground in Darfur and eastern Chad, as well as statements by major international actors; but these suggest there is neither exaggeration nor implausibility to any feature to this hypothetical account.
DANGER TO HUMANITARIANS IN DARFUR AND EASTERN CHAD
The warnings concerning violence against humanitarians and the continuing attenuation of humanitarian access could not be more blunt. Citing a “more than 100% increase in violent clashes [in Darfur] in the first half of 2006 compared to the first half of last year,” UN humanitarian aid chief Jan Egeland declared:
“The situation in Darfur was going from really bad to catastrophic.” (Jan Egeland interview, August 10, 2006, transcript from UN Department of Public Information [Geneva])
Mike McDonagh, senior humanitarian affairs officer at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Khartoum, declared:
"During the second half of July [2006], we lost more aid workers than over the previous two years.” (UN Integrated Regional Information Networks [IRIN] [dateline: Nairobi], August 3, 2006)
More recently IRIN reports:
“July was the most dangerous month of the three-year-old conflict in Darfur for aid workers, four major international humanitarian agencies working in the region said on Tuesday [August 8, 2006]. Violence has escalated since the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement on 5 May [2006] between the government and the largest rebel group. Eight Sudanese humanitarian workers were killed in July alone. The increasing insecurity is also limiting the ability of aid agencies to reach people in need, with potentially disastrous consequences, warned the four agencies---Care, International Rescue Committee (IRC), Oxfam International, and World Vision.” (IRIN [dateline: Nairobi], August 10, 2006)
This assessment was echoed by Manuel da Silva, United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan:
"‘The level of violence being faced by humanitarian workers in Darfur is unprecedented,’ da Silva [said]. ‘The situation is made even more serious by the fact that the need for humanitarian assistance is increasing while our ability to respond is being ever more restricted,’ da Silva added.”
(IRIN [dateline: Nairobi], August 10, 2006)
The view is the same from the African Union: Baba Gana Kingibe, Special Representative of the AU Commission Chairperson, declared bluntly in el-Fasher [capital of North Darfur], “Security in Darfur ‘is plummeting’” (Associated Press [dateline: el-Fasher], August 7, 2006).
What Kingibe did not discuss is the continuing failure of the AU to fashion a working cease-fire commission in Darfur per the terms of the May 5 Abuja agreement---or to publish even the most rudimentary reports about massive, ongoing military violence in North Darfur. This includes active collaboration between Khartoum’s regular military forces and those of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) faction of Minni Minawi, now Special Assistant to National Islamic Front President and Field Marshal Omar el-Bashir. Nor does Kingibe discuss the implications of the AU providing transport and accommodations to Minawi’s commanders in the field, even those implicated in recent atrocities.
To his credit, Kingibe has finally spoken out against the numerous and highly credible charges of torture used as a weapon of war by Minawi’s forces. But this came only a week after authoritative accounts of atrocities by Minawi’s forces had been published by Amnesty International and Refugees International. The latter reported:
“One woman in the Tawilla camp [North Darfur] described the nature of these [threatened] punishments [of non-signatories to the DPA]. She said that hundreds of Minawi’s soldiers entered her village and started shooting. They went inside the houses one by one shooting the men, including her husband, and beating or raping the women and girls. The soldiers took whatever they could find---clothing, shoes, money, livestock. Her story is remarkably consistent with thousands of others in the region that detail targeted executions of men and violent, forced displacement.” (Refugees International, “Town in North Darfur Reflects Changing Nature of Conflict,” July 24, 2006)
Amnesty International reports that:
“The African Union peacekeeping force in al-Fasher has not only been unable to protect civilians in Korma [North Darfur], but has yet to investigate the killings. Civilians reported the attacks to [the African Union] on 5 July [2006], but the SLA (Minni Minawi) reportedly opposed [the AU’s] going to Korma.” (Amnesty International, “Korma: Yet more attacks on civilians” [AI Index AFR 54/026/2006])
Moreover, the AU has lost all initiative in patrolling within camps or rural areas: there is no AU access in the vast majority of camps, many fewer patrols are being mounted, morale is abysmal, and few of the troops deployed are looking to more than a September exit. A senior UN aid official on the ground in North Darfur estimates privately that unchecked internecine fighting between SLA factions has left over 60% of North Darfur inaccessible to humanitarian operations for the past two months. IRIN reports Turid Laegreid, a senior UN humanitarian official in el-Fasher, as declaring that “access to the local population in North Darfur is at an all-time low” (IRIN [dateline: Nairobi] August 1, 2006).
And while North Darfur is currently the most threatened of the three Darfur states, the potential for explosions in both South and West Darfur is all too clear. Indeed, last week Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), the largest international humanitarian presence in Darfur, reported that in West Darfur,
“Security incidents have led to the evacuation of our teams in Serif Umra and two projects in the Jebel Marra, as well as the interruption of mobile clinics, and the limitation in the referral of emergency cases to surgical facilities in other areas. [ ] Many MSF activities are currently suspended, leaving thousands of patients untreated everyday. MSF has been attacked in the past weeks in several locations in all regions of Darfur.” ("Increased insecurity hampers MSF medical assistance to the population of Darfur," MSF [press] release, August 3, 2006)
Not only is medical care being denied to desperate civilians, but food aid as well:
“The UN World Food Program was unable to deliver supplies to 400,000 people in July, up from 290,000 in June.” (Associated Press [dateline: el-Fasher, North Darfur], August 8, 2006)
The number of people in Darfur not receiving food aid in mid-August is over 500,000 and rising rapidly. And this represents those currently targeted for food delivery, not the global Darfuri population in need.
Conditions in eastern Chad in many ways mirror those in Darfur, as the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) declared in an August 8, 2006 press release in Geneva:
“UNHCR is very concerned about the safety of humanitarian workers in eastern Chad following a deterioration in the security situation there. We are particularly worried about the situation in and around the town of Guereda, which is located about 65 kilometres from the border with Sudan.”
“Last Friday, seven men brandishing assault rifles and wearing military uniforms broke into the compound of a non-governmental organisation in Guereda. Three aid workers were hit in the head with rifle butts and one of them was later evacuated to a French military hospital in Abeche, capital of eastern Chad. [ ] This is the seventh time humanitarian workers have been targeted in the Guereda area since May. Three weeks ago, two vehicles from another NGO were stolen. At the beginning of July, two UNHCR cars were stolen from our Guereda office after armed men overpowered the guards.” [ ]
“We are extremely concerned about these incidents. The growing insecurity is making it more difficult and more dangerous for humanitarian agencies and their staff to provide assistance to Sudanese refugees from Darfur in the area. Some international and local humanitarian agencies are working with only essential staff and have reduced their activities in the camps.”
None of these trends will be reversed in the foreseeable future; on the contrary, all evidence suggests a further deterioration of security. The UN’s “Darfur Peace Agreement Monitor” (July 2006) gives a grim assessment of the fundamentally changed dynamic of violence on the ground:
“The increasing fragmentation of armed groups has made humanitarian action more difficult and dangerous. Previously, humanitarian actors used an established notification system to inform armed groups of their movements. During the past month, the number of military actors increased, combat zones multiplied, and chains of command disintegrated. In some cases, established notification systems have failed completely, dramatically increasing the humanitarian actors’ operational risks.” (UN “DPA Monitor,” July 2006, page 11)
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
'Jay, don't give up. Live..."; R&R August 8th, Philadelphia
Someone that has been a true sister to me longer than anyone has ever been true "family" to me is totally against what I have announced - tying my life to that of the 3,000,000 in Darfur, that may well mean that as with many of them, I may well not live to see much of October.
She wrote me a long, passionate, thoughtful, forceful letter. I will not publish it here, out of respect and confidentiality for her. But the issues she raised I addressed in a letter to her and that I will share.
Among her major issues:
* Are you so frustrated, depleted and tired that you are just giving up? Get help! Rebuild yourself.
* The way of life is to scratch to keep yourself alive! Don't stop!
* Can serve better alive!
* Healthy people should not throw their lives away! That is simply wrong!
* I just don't understand you!
The response from me:
Hi sweetie!
I really, really value what you had to say, and the love and compassion that you said it with. Thanks dear.
I have never felt more alive. I have never been more greedy for Life. Tired? I don't get it, but I've got tons of energy lately. (Hmm. I do get it. My body is getting real good at feeding off of itself.) But it is not just my life that I am greedy for, but rather everyone's life, born and not yet born, for eons to come.
All the people we referenced, Gandhi, Jesus, King, etc. agree with me, not you dear. :-) . All the soldiers of destruction and violence, but nobility throughout the ages agree with me, not you. Good soldiers, really good ones - violent or antiviolent, do not hesitate to put their lives on the line, or even to take suicide missions. This is indesputable. WHAT MAKES IT HARD TO SEE IN ME IS THAT WE'VE ALL BEEN WEANED ON THE IDEA THAT FIGHTING MEANS DESTRUCTION. WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN NO MODELS OF ANTIVIOLENT FIGHTING. What models we do have in the so-called "peace" movement is the cowardice that is nothing of the kind - no model of nonviolence at all. HOWEVER, THANK GOD, THERE ARE SOME VALID EXCEPTIONS EMERGING!!! CODE PINK / TROOPS HOME FAST!!!!!!!! King, AND HIS FAMILY, were under documented DEATH THREAT virtually every day of his adult life. AND HIS "FAMILY"!!! I can't imagine that level of courage, and goodness. But I want to. HORRIBLE OF HIM, unless we realize that he, like I've now come to, REJECTS THE IDEA THAT EVERYONE IS NOT HIS FAMILY.
What follows is not a request, but if you ever want to understand me, ponder what I've written on the blog, deeply. Study nonviolent writings (antiviolent is a much more correct term than "nonviolent" that suggests passivity). Gandhi's "All Men are Brothers" may be the best. There is little original in the direction of my thinking or action in light of these folks we've mentioned. I am in line with their lives, actions and views.
And no, you are wrong. Scratching for our own lives is NOT the way of life. Scratching for the lives of OTHERS is the way of life. Nice try! Trying to fool me. :-) . Look at you and [your husband] and how you scratch for your biological [20 something son]! (The scratching-for-ourselves, AND FOR "OUR OWN," that has become our religion in this sick culture of ours, is actually death - cancer; that is when cells become cancer - they turn from scratching for the body/all other cells, and just start scratching for themselves, and the few cells around them, and then the whole body gets sick, CANCEROUS, and dies. Just like we HAVE BECOME CANCEROUS, AND ARE DYING. Ok, now imagine that not just [NAME] is your son, but so are all the 3,000,000 in concentration camps in Darfur being starved to death; and SO ARE THE NEXT GENERATION OF DESTITUTE; SO ARE THE NEXT GENERATION OF OPPRESSORS - WE IN THE US.... Imagine how you might scratch for all of them!!!!!!!!!!
Regarding that you will not have me come stay with you in what may be my final days - [Sister], I feel you with me. I feel your unconditional love; always have. Never doubt that. I know you love me and support not what I am doing, but me. I am so grateful for that.
I've got your info and will keep you updated, largely through the blog though. Must keep focussed on trying to save us. It is not too late. Must make every second count. Matter of life and death. September 17th is our last chance. SAVEDARFUR.ORG
Just so you know, I WILL BE FIGHTING FOR OUR LIVES, MINE AND DARFUR'S UP UNTIL MY LAST BREATH. ANYONE THAT WANTS TO SAVE ME AND OUR DARFUR FAMILY CAN DO SO BY MAKING THE SAVEDARFUR.ORG COALITION SEPTEMBER 17TH RALLY'S AROUND THE COUNTRY AND AROUND THE WORLD THE END OF THE GENOCIDE. IF DARFUR AND I DIE IT WILL BE DUE TO THE NEGLECT OF OUR FAMILY, EVERYWHERE.
SEPT 17TH can be allowed to fail, and the neglect of this opportunity will kill us.
Love you all always,
Jay
She wrote me a long, passionate, thoughtful, forceful letter. I will not publish it here, out of respect and confidentiality for her. But the issues she raised I addressed in a letter to her and that I will share.
Among her major issues:
* Are you so frustrated, depleted and tired that you are just giving up? Get help! Rebuild yourself.
* The way of life is to scratch to keep yourself alive! Don't stop!
* Can serve better alive!
* Healthy people should not throw their lives away! That is simply wrong!
* I just don't understand you!
The response from me:
Hi sweetie!
I really, really value what you had to say, and the love and compassion that you said it with. Thanks dear.
I have never felt more alive. I have never been more greedy for Life. Tired? I don't get it, but I've got tons of energy lately. (Hmm. I do get it. My body is getting real good at feeding off of itself.) But it is not just my life that I am greedy for, but rather everyone's life, born and not yet born, for eons to come.
All the people we referenced, Gandhi, Jesus, King, etc. agree with me, not you dear. :-) . All the soldiers of destruction and violence, but nobility throughout the ages agree with me, not you. Good soldiers, really good ones - violent or antiviolent, do not hesitate to put their lives on the line, or even to take suicide missions. This is indesputable. WHAT MAKES IT HARD TO SEE IN ME IS THAT WE'VE ALL BEEN WEANED ON THE IDEA THAT FIGHTING MEANS DESTRUCTION. WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN NO MODELS OF ANTIVIOLENT FIGHTING. What models we do have in the so-called "peace" movement is the cowardice that is nothing of the kind - no model of nonviolence at all. HOWEVER, THANK GOD, THERE ARE SOME VALID EXCEPTIONS EMERGING!!! CODE PINK / TROOPS HOME FAST!!!!!!!! King, AND HIS FAMILY, were under documented DEATH THREAT virtually every day of his adult life. AND HIS "FAMILY"!!! I can't imagine that level of courage, and goodness. But I want to. HORRIBLE OF HIM, unless we realize that he, like I've now come to, REJECTS THE IDEA THAT EVERYONE IS NOT HIS FAMILY.
What follows is not a request, but if you ever want to understand me, ponder what I've written on the blog, deeply. Study nonviolent writings (antiviolent is a much more correct term than "nonviolent" that suggests passivity). Gandhi's "All Men are Brothers" may be the best. There is little original in the direction of my thinking or action in light of these folks we've mentioned. I am in line with their lives, actions and views.
And no, you are wrong. Scratching for our own lives is NOT the way of life. Scratching for the lives of OTHERS is the way of life. Nice try! Trying to fool me. :-) . Look at you and [your husband] and how you scratch for your biological [20 something son]! (The scratching-for-ourselves, AND FOR "OUR OWN," that has become our religion in this sick culture of ours, is actually death - cancer; that is when cells become cancer - they turn from scratching for the body/all other cells, and just start scratching for themselves, and the few cells around them, and then the whole body gets sick, CANCEROUS, and dies. Just like we HAVE BECOME CANCEROUS, AND ARE DYING. Ok, now imagine that not just [NAME] is your son, but so are all the 3,000,000 in concentration camps in Darfur being starved to death; and SO ARE THE NEXT GENERATION OF DESTITUTE; SO ARE THE NEXT GENERATION OF OPPRESSORS - WE IN THE US.... Imagine how you might scratch for all of them!!!!!!!!!!
Regarding that you will not have me come stay with you in what may be my final days - [Sister], I feel you with me. I feel your unconditional love; always have. Never doubt that. I know you love me and support not what I am doing, but me. I am so grateful for that.
I've got your info and will keep you updated, largely through the blog though. Must keep focussed on trying to save us. It is not too late. Must make every second count. Matter of life and death. September 17th is our last chance. SAVEDARFUR.ORG
Just so you know, I WILL BE FIGHTING FOR OUR LIVES, MINE AND DARFUR'S UP UNTIL MY LAST BREATH. ANYONE THAT WANTS TO SAVE ME AND OUR DARFUR FAMILY CAN DO SO BY MAKING THE SAVEDARFUR.ORG COALITION SEPTEMBER 17TH RALLY'S AROUND THE COUNTRY AND AROUND THE WORLD THE END OF THE GENOCIDE. IF DARFUR AND I DIE IT WILL BE DUE TO THE NEGLECT OF OUR FAMILY, EVERYWHERE.
SEPT 17TH can be allowed to fail, and the neglect of this opportunity will kill us.
Love you all always,
Jay
Monday, August 07, 2006
CRY FREEDOM: MANY MUST GIVE LIFE. Hunger Strike holding at Day 28; Vigil hold at Day 80
Note: I am on my way to my Philadelphia family to fatten up so that by week's end / mid next week I can get back on Hunger Strike in DC with a chance of surviving until the end of September. That is our last chance to Save Darfur, and by being able to hold out that long, it may save me as well! :-)
Have you seen the movie "Cry Freedom" with Denzel Washington? It is the story of Steven Beko, just one of the many ANTI-VIOLENT fighters for an apartheid-free South Africa who risked and gave their lives to the mad, merciless South African machine over 20 years or more before some level of victory was won. It works that way. Society demands sacrifices until it gets tired of all the lost life, looks at itself finally, and begins to live and grow again.
I've faced this reality before, particularly in the Chester battle, but finally I am called by circumstances to walk the walk of Steven Beko.
The circumstances?
1. Arguably our culture has eroded our humanity, courage, clinical individual "life" to a lower level than any time in history. We are paying the price of meaningless, joyless lives. The world is paying the price in ever more brutal exploitation and manipulation. Our children, and their children? It has become unimaginably horrible to contemplate. As God is my witness I am certain that Cheney and pals may be planning how to bring us to full Police State before they would otherwise be forced out of office. We're too asleep to notice, OR CARE! And that is one of the lesser horrors!
Both parties and houses blessing the destruction of Lebanon and Palestine? Both parties washing in the blood of the Lebanese children? This is evil, darkness beyond comprehension. AND MAYBE WORSE, all the US Lebanese population can think to do is CANDLE LIGHT VIGILS!!!!!!!!! MADNESS!!!!!!!!!!! No strikes. No arrests. No civil disobedience. CANDLE LIGHT VIGILS that are really quite festive social events. WE ARE WALKING DEAD.
NO FREE PRESS. Simply a government propaganda machine. Can't you feel us drool over the prospect of forcing our wonderful sham illusion of "democracy" on Cuba? Do you feel the eagerness for all-out war with Islam - World War III. Madness.
2. It is NOW or NEVER for Darfur per yesterday's post "Jay is going to play...."
No euphoria on my part, BUT I AM VERY HAPPY AND EXCITED. I am feeling some of the freedom, purpose, significance, participation-in-life and meaning that I have been greedy for throughout my life. I am NOT seeking Martyrdom. But it now is seeking me. :-) I am honored to be called and to serve in this way. And I think martyrdom is going to seek, and need many others in the coming years.
I have a vision of an infinately more humane, joyful, brotherly/sisterly world than the Matrix-like machine that is today's reality. It is what Dr. King sensed; and Gandhi; Jesus; Sidhartha; Mandella; Beko.... It is worth a great price. It is a great joy to pursue and to try to help birth.
Finally, it is said that the hardest role played in a battle like this is by the friends. Many of you are my "family." I am grateful for your friendship; I am sorry for the pain I cause you; and I will try to be as little a burden on you as I can, but in this I will have limited success.
3. We now must streatch our hearts accross oceans. Hmmm. This is a new clarity for me. We've streatched our bodies and eyes around the globe with planes, ships and video. We've yet to streatch our hearts. Let us remember that Einstein and his ilk have many decades ago been telling us that unless our morality catches up with our techonology, humanity is doomed. I see this clearly.
4. We must give our lives to keep our Lives. Life is advancing the wellbeing of the species, and the planet and universe. This is the way of Life; the ONLY way of Life. I think most scientists in relevant domains would have to agree with my definition, in concept. "life" (little "l") is our pulse. This is not who we are. This is a meer vessel. We know this. Really. Please don't brush this off. Think about it. We've all seen and "believed" movies where someone's "spirit" is placed in a robot or something and they "Live" (captal "L") on. We've known parapalegics that are much more alive than most people. Jesus lives on. Gandhi, Buddha, King, Teresa, Abe Lincoln.... All who give their life to others Live on forever, as I've just shown and reminded you. The more we Give, the more we Live on. :-) The more we give, THE MORE THAT OUR HUMAN FAMILY LIVES ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thruly, I see we humans of 2006 as walking dead now. Sorry, but it is True. The materially wealthy like we in the US are drowning in our own selfish pleasure. The destitute of the world are burning in their own hell of material torment. Teresa, King, Gandhi, Jesus all saw it the same way. This is unacceptable. I want us to Live. I will help as best I can. Forever.
Your brother, Jay
Have you seen the movie "Cry Freedom" with Denzel Washington? It is the story of Steven Beko, just one of the many ANTI-VIOLENT fighters for an apartheid-free South Africa who risked and gave their lives to the mad, merciless South African machine over 20 years or more before some level of victory was won. It works that way. Society demands sacrifices until it gets tired of all the lost life, looks at itself finally, and begins to live and grow again.
I've faced this reality before, particularly in the Chester battle, but finally I am called by circumstances to walk the walk of Steven Beko.
The circumstances?
1. Arguably our culture has eroded our humanity, courage, clinical individual "life" to a lower level than any time in history. We are paying the price of meaningless, joyless lives. The world is paying the price in ever more brutal exploitation and manipulation. Our children, and their children? It has become unimaginably horrible to contemplate. As God is my witness I am certain that Cheney and pals may be planning how to bring us to full Police State before they would otherwise be forced out of office. We're too asleep to notice, OR CARE! And that is one of the lesser horrors!
Both parties and houses blessing the destruction of Lebanon and Palestine? Both parties washing in the blood of the Lebanese children? This is evil, darkness beyond comprehension. AND MAYBE WORSE, all the US Lebanese population can think to do is CANDLE LIGHT VIGILS!!!!!!!!! MADNESS!!!!!!!!!!! No strikes. No arrests. No civil disobedience. CANDLE LIGHT VIGILS that are really quite festive social events. WE ARE WALKING DEAD.
NO FREE PRESS. Simply a government propaganda machine. Can't you feel us drool over the prospect of forcing our wonderful sham illusion of "democracy" on Cuba? Do you feel the eagerness for all-out war with Islam - World War III. Madness.
2. It is NOW or NEVER for Darfur per yesterday's post "Jay is going to play...."
No euphoria on my part, BUT I AM VERY HAPPY AND EXCITED. I am feeling some of the freedom, purpose, significance, participation-in-life and meaning that I have been greedy for throughout my life. I am NOT seeking Martyrdom. But it now is seeking me. :-) I am honored to be called and to serve in this way. And I think martyrdom is going to seek, and need many others in the coming years.
I have a vision of an infinately more humane, joyful, brotherly/sisterly world than the Matrix-like machine that is today's reality. It is what Dr. King sensed; and Gandhi; Jesus; Sidhartha; Mandella; Beko.... It is worth a great price. It is a great joy to pursue and to try to help birth.
Finally, it is said that the hardest role played in a battle like this is by the friends. Many of you are my "family." I am grateful for your friendship; I am sorry for the pain I cause you; and I will try to be as little a burden on you as I can, but in this I will have limited success.
3. We now must streatch our hearts accross oceans. Hmmm. This is a new clarity for me. We've streatched our bodies and eyes around the globe with planes, ships and video. We've yet to streatch our hearts. Let us remember that Einstein and his ilk have many decades ago been telling us that unless our morality catches up with our techonology, humanity is doomed. I see this clearly.
4. We must give our lives to keep our Lives. Life is advancing the wellbeing of the species, and the planet and universe. This is the way of Life; the ONLY way of Life. I think most scientists in relevant domains would have to agree with my definition, in concept. "life" (little "l") is our pulse. This is not who we are. This is a meer vessel. We know this. Really. Please don't brush this off. Think about it. We've all seen and "believed" movies where someone's "spirit" is placed in a robot or something and they "Live" (captal "L") on. We've known parapalegics that are much more alive than most people. Jesus lives on. Gandhi, Buddha, King, Teresa, Abe Lincoln.... All who give their life to others Live on forever, as I've just shown and reminded you. The more we Give, the more we Live on. :-) The more we give, THE MORE THAT OUR HUMAN FAMILY LIVES ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thruly, I see we humans of 2006 as walking dead now. Sorry, but it is True. The materially wealthy like we in the US are drowning in our own selfish pleasure. The destitute of the world are burning in their own hell of material torment. Teresa, King, Gandhi, Jesus all saw it the same way. This is unacceptable. I want us to Live. I will help as best I can. Forever.
Your brother, Jay
Sunday, August 06, 2006
JAY TO PLAY THE SAVE DARFUR COALITION'S, YOU BE YOUR LIFE!
Ok, I give in, I'LL PLAY TOO!
FACT: of the 10-50 people I speak with in-depth per day about Darfur at the White House, 99% of them I BEG to center their lives around making the SAVE DARFUR COALITION'S SEPTEMBER 17TH GLOBAL DEMONSTRATIONS THE END OF THIS GENOCIDE.
Thank God that the Coalition has planned and is organizing these around the world SEPTEMBER 17th. This has been my feeling since the second I heard of them at the early July 06 planning meeting at Georgetown University. They are a Godsend opportunity.
I MUST ADMIT, I have always maintained that they are NECESSARY, but not sufficient. BUT I HAVE NEVER GOTTEN A HINT OF AGREEMENT ON THIS DEFICIENCY IN ANY FORM FROM ANYONE IN THE COALITION.
SO, I'M IN!!!!!! IF THE SAVE DARFUR COALITION IS WILLING TO BET 3,000,000 LIVES ON THIS EVENT BEING SUFFICIENT TO SAVE THEM, THAT IS GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME.
I'm going to bet my life that they are correct.
Here's how! Please follow:
1. We all know that the Darfuries are OUT OF TIME. With the abandonment of Darfur by the world's people Bashir is getting the aid workers shot. As the aid workers leave the Darfur death toll will approach 25-50,000 per week. Our Darfur family is cooked.
2. Therefore obviously Save Darfur, in expressing not the slightest concern in any way that I can see that their plan is not SUFFICIENT, they assert that the September 17th events WILL SECURE IMMEDIATE, IRON CLAD COMMITMENT AND DEPLOYMENT OF THE 20-30,000 UN TROOPS WITH CHAPTER 7 MANDATE! (Nothing less will prevent 100,000's of thousands more deaths.)
3. SO, I'M GOING TO BACK THEM WITH ONE MORE LIFE! Today is day 29 of my water only Hunger Strike. I figure that I can go 60 days (although what I saw in the mirror 2 days ago scared me pretty good. Oh well.) But, if I continue the Hunger Strike without interruption that isn't fair. I'd probably be dead before September 17th. No cheating! :-) I figure I need to give the Coalition until the end of September to produce the IMMEDIATE, IRON CLAD COMMITMENT AND DEPLOYMENT OF THE 20-30,000 UN TROOPS WITH CHAPTER 7 MANDATE!
4. So, today, August 7th I will weigh myself and maintain today's weight until September 1; thereby freezing the clock until then. Except for a few days off, the Vigil will continue in President's Park. I will give every second to driving people to these truly God given, LIFE or DEATH, last chance for Darfur September 17th events.
5. On September 1 I will resume the water only hunger strike.
6. I'll stop when I am notified of the IMMEDIATE, IRON CLAD COMMITMENT AND DEPLOYMENT OF THE 20-30,000 UN TROOPS WITH CHAPTER 7 MANDATE!
7. And, everything will then be fine. Right?
The game has begun! How exciting! This will be so interesting. I am really, really hungry, so I wouldn't mind if the Coalition won early!
BY THE WAY, HONESTLY AND TRULY, BEFORE GOD AND IN THE NAME OF GOD, IN THE NAME OF GOOD, I INVITE 1,000'S OF PEOPLE TO JOIN ME. NOW. WOULD A "BROTHER" OR "SISTER" OF DARFUR DO ANYTHING LESS UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES? FOR MANY OF US, NO. IT'S TIME TO STEP UP TO THE PLATE. THE GAME IS ALMOST AT AN END.
(By now, you should know me too well to think that I am kidding. The game has begun.)
FACT: of the 10-50 people I speak with in-depth per day about Darfur at the White House, 99% of them I BEG to center their lives around making the SAVE DARFUR COALITION'S SEPTEMBER 17TH GLOBAL DEMONSTRATIONS THE END OF THIS GENOCIDE.
Thank God that the Coalition has planned and is organizing these around the world SEPTEMBER 17th. This has been my feeling since the second I heard of them at the early July 06 planning meeting at Georgetown University. They are a Godsend opportunity.
I MUST ADMIT, I have always maintained that they are NECESSARY, but not sufficient. BUT I HAVE NEVER GOTTEN A HINT OF AGREEMENT ON THIS DEFICIENCY IN ANY FORM FROM ANYONE IN THE COALITION.
SO, I'M IN!!!!!! IF THE SAVE DARFUR COALITION IS WILLING TO BET 3,000,000 LIVES ON THIS EVENT BEING SUFFICIENT TO SAVE THEM, THAT IS GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME.
I'm going to bet my life that they are correct.
Here's how! Please follow:
1. We all know that the Darfuries are OUT OF TIME. With the abandonment of Darfur by the world's people Bashir is getting the aid workers shot. As the aid workers leave the Darfur death toll will approach 25-50,000 per week. Our Darfur family is cooked.
2. Therefore obviously Save Darfur, in expressing not the slightest concern in any way that I can see that their plan is not SUFFICIENT, they assert that the September 17th events WILL SECURE IMMEDIATE, IRON CLAD COMMITMENT AND DEPLOYMENT OF THE 20-30,000 UN TROOPS WITH CHAPTER 7 MANDATE! (Nothing less will prevent 100,000's of thousands more deaths.)
3. SO, I'M GOING TO BACK THEM WITH ONE MORE LIFE! Today is day 29 of my water only Hunger Strike. I figure that I can go 60 days (although what I saw in the mirror 2 days ago scared me pretty good. Oh well.) But, if I continue the Hunger Strike without interruption that isn't fair. I'd probably be dead before September 17th. No cheating! :-) I figure I need to give the Coalition until the end of September to produce the IMMEDIATE, IRON CLAD COMMITMENT AND DEPLOYMENT OF THE 20-30,000 UN TROOPS WITH CHAPTER 7 MANDATE!
4. So, today, August 7th I will weigh myself and maintain today's weight until September 1; thereby freezing the clock until then. Except for a few days off, the Vigil will continue in President's Park. I will give every second to driving people to these truly God given, LIFE or DEATH, last chance for Darfur September 17th events.
5. On September 1 I will resume the water only hunger strike.
6. I'll stop when I am notified of the IMMEDIATE, IRON CLAD COMMITMENT AND DEPLOYMENT OF THE 20-30,000 UN TROOPS WITH CHAPTER 7 MANDATE!
7. And, everything will then be fine. Right?
The game has begun! How exciting! This will be so interesting. I am really, really hungry, so I wouldn't mind if the Coalition won early!
BY THE WAY, HONESTLY AND TRULY, BEFORE GOD AND IN THE NAME OF GOD, IN THE NAME OF GOOD, I INVITE 1,000'S OF PEOPLE TO JOIN ME. NOW. WOULD A "BROTHER" OR "SISTER" OF DARFUR DO ANYTHING LESS UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES? FOR MANY OF US, NO. IT'S TIME TO STEP UP TO THE PLATE. THE GAME IS ALMOST AT AN END.
(By now, you should know me too well to think that I am kidding. The game has begun.)
AND THE CHILDREN WILL LEAD THEM. Hunger Strike Day 28, Vigil Day 79
Two nights ago six Cherrubs and an Angel descended upon me at President's park about 10:30 pm. I'm really not kidding. Six young children and their aunt who leads them all in a summer camp. I can't recall encountering more human, warm, intelligent, empathic, compassionate hearts in my 79 days in the park. They were deeply, reverently concerned with everything about their Darfur family (yes, none has Sudan ancestors). Their questions were deeply respectful, relevent and highly sensitive. It was glorious.
Today at about 4pm, this is what I saw. Ok, I kinda saw it through my tears. Darfur, you do have family in the US. Pittifully small, but it can grow. LET THE CHILDREN LEAD US.
Ms. Abby Robinson, their teacher, told me to include - "I see you (Mr Jay), as a Godsend, you have awakened my children's consciousness in a inmeasurable and unquantifiable way. The lesson they learned from you in two days will benifit them a lifetime " Msabby
From left to right these blessed children are (front row) Mary Kate, Katelyn, Aziah, (back row) Robert, Ms. Robinson, Alvin and Nataniel.
And others care too. Pictured with me is one of the few great men of God, of Jesus that ever I have met. Michael Dorn is a Maryknoll Seminarian. MICHAEL IS THE FIRST TO LOVE HIS DARFUR FAMILY SO MUCH THAT HE JOINED THE VIGIL AND HUNGER STRIKE FOR THEM IN LAFAYETTE PARK. 2 DAYS NO FOOD. 2 DAYS DAY AND NIGHT VIGIL.
Neither Michael nor I can understand why hundreds or thousands haven't joined. HOW CAN YOU RESIST? REALLY? THIS IS THE GREATEST OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME. IT IS.
Today at about 4pm, this is what I saw. Ok, I kinda saw it through my tears. Darfur, you do have family in the US. Pittifully small, but it can grow. LET THE CHILDREN LEAD US.
Ms. Abby Robinson, their teacher, told me to include - "I see you (Mr Jay), as a Godsend, you have awakened my children's consciousness in a inmeasurable and unquantifiable way. The lesson they learned from you in two days will benifit them a lifetime " Msabby
From left to right these blessed children are (front row) Mary Kate, Katelyn, Aziah, (back row) Robert, Ms. Robinson, Alvin and Nataniel.
And others care too. Pictured with me is one of the few great men of God, of Jesus that ever I have met. Michael Dorn is a Maryknoll Seminarian. MICHAEL IS THE FIRST TO LOVE HIS DARFUR FAMILY SO MUCH THAT HE JOINED THE VIGIL AND HUNGER STRIKE FOR THEM IN LAFAYETTE PARK. 2 DAYS NO FOOD. 2 DAYS DAY AND NIGHT VIGIL.
Neither Michael nor I can understand why hundreds or thousands haven't joined. HOW CAN YOU RESIST? REALLY? THIS IS THE GREATEST OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME. IT IS.
Saturday, August 05, 2006
INDEPTH INTERVIEW: Hunger Strike Day 27; Vigil Day 78
My Newz 'n Ideas Plus!
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Interview: Jay's Hunger Strike for Darfur
Our senior editor, Rosemary, has had a wonderful opportunity to interview a man by the name of Jay McGinley. He is standing to the North of the White House in President's Park facing the White House. He has been on a hunger strike, and the news media deems this as non-issue. Rosemary does not. So we got a jump on a story before the New York Times. Oh, but then again, she worked for it. It was not handed to her.
There are several questions that were asked, and all of them were answered frankly and honestly-as he sees the issues. What shall be done, in order to preserve some space and keep your interest, is to eliminate some of the reduncacies. Let me first apologize for asking insufficient and out of order questions. Let us go to the interview.
(This interview took place through e-mail and the telephone. My answers shall be in bold, his shall be in regular print.)
Hello, Mr. Jay McGinley. It is nice to 'meet' to you. Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed. Would you like to get started? Yes, thank you.
1. First of all, would you like to tell us why you are on hunger strike for the people of Darfur, Sudan?I reject the notion we have unconsciously embraced. That there needs to be, that there should be, a difference in the way we treat people who live nextdoor to us, and a different standard for those who do not. I am a desciple of Jesus. He was explicit. Love your neighbor as yourself. Do unto others all that you would have them do unto you. As you do unto the least of these, my family, you do unto me. This is in my heart. People in Darfur are my family. For those who do not have faith or have a different faith, it is the Golden Rule.
Ok, so if your family in Darfur is being slaughtered, what do you do? You fight for the solution that all parties involved are calling for: "20,000 to 30,000 UN Peacekeeping Troops on the ground with a Chaper 7 mandate (empowered to use force), to protect and make these people's land safe again for farming and living. And you fight to get your fellow citizens to give a mandate to our administration that they apply all pressure necessary on Sudan's President el Bashir to allow the peacekeepers and aid workers in, unmolested, to do their jobs.
According to Samantha Power's Pulitzer prize winning analysis of the last 100 years of genocide (Problem from Hell), the battle to stop genocide has always been lost on the field of public opinion in the US. We have the power, but we as a citizenry have never raised the will. We have never found the courage to step out of our comfort zone and registered our mandate with our elected officials. So what can you do? You set about to raise the courage among your fellow citizens.
I believe in nonviolent warfare in general, and certainly in the fight to raise courage among "we the people". In all of the important such struggles in this country - Civil Rights, Womens' Suffrage, Anti-Apartheid - a small group of people have stood up with tremendous courage, given an example to millions who then stood up with them with substantial courage to unmistakably state their mandate to the elected officials. I am calling for an all out nonviolent war, or campaign, here in the US to raise the mandate that I know our elected officials want to see. I believe some of us need to pay a personal price. I am leading by example. That is why I am on Hunger strike.
2. How many days have been on the hunger strike?Today is day 75 of the round the clock vigil for Darfur at the White House. Today is Day 24 of the Hunger strike. I intend to go through Day 60 on Hunger Strike. This will put me in extreme harms way. This is where a soldier fighting for his brothers and sisters belongs. But I have a good chance of surviving, and a good soldier is neither reckless or suicidal. I am neither.
3. What do you hope to accomplish? When will you feel you haveachieved your goal?As Gandhi said, "Full effort is full victory." Our Heavenly Father is not going to ask me if I stopped the Genocide. What He will ask me is whether I did everything in my power to try to stop it. This is what I hope to achieve "doing all that I would have them do unto me.
I want to raise awareness so that others will have a similar level of commitment and sacrifice. That would spark hundreds of thousands to register their mandate through nonviolence but unmistakeable personal sacrifice, so the administration would have the mandate they need to push forward.
Specifically I want to see that which will be the catalyst to raise our will - 20 to 500 of us will gather in August at the White House for either a mass hunger strike, or a rolling one. It is possible there may be nonviolent arrests, but these will instill in our brothers and sisters around the country the urgency of the situation and the courage stand up for Darfur.
With this August's action, we can deliver to the September 17 rally planned for NYC by the Save Darfur Coalition 100,000 to 300,000 people that have sufficient courage to undertake whatever remaining nonviolent civil disobedience is necessary so that the 20-30,000 UN Peacekeepers needed by our Darfur family are deployed to Darfor without further delay.
4. Do you believe the American people are aware of the seriousness of the Darfur situation?Yes and no. It is said that the longest journey in the world is from the head to the heart. Millions upon millions of Americans have heard something about this situation, but almost none have allowed the information to travel from their head to their heart.
I am passionately convinced that the cowardly way we have reacted to the information is not what my brothers and sisters in America truly desire. I honestly believe that once they are raised to a courageous response, the joy that will be released in them will constitute their finest hour. It would be a turning point for our country. We would be back in the world's leadership in humanity and human rights that we always have aspired to fulfill.
5. Do you think the press is neglecting this issue?I think everyone in this country is avoiding this issue. I think that the press has ceased to be fighters for morality and truth, and they have become nothing more than entertainers.
They, too, have prevented the journey from the head to the heart. Also, unless some of us can successfully encourage their leadership, they will at some time in their life be ashamed and deeply regretful for the cowardice and inhumanity they are now providing.
6. What is so important about Darfur?The world knows, and has known since the Holocaust, that those suffering Genocide are the least of these. It has been said that the reason for forming the United Nations was to prevent genocide. Shortly after the Holocaust, the word Genocide was coined. Before very long all the countries of the world, except the United States, had ratified the Genocide convention which committed the world to protect such victims. After decades the United States signed the document.
The world has taken no such unanimous action toward any other type of atrocity. By definition, therefore, "victims of Genocide constitute the Least of These."
We are no longer humane beings if we will stand by while 3,000,000 of our brothers and sisters are exterminated. Just because they are native Africans and not the Arab elite who want this country?
I believe that our Father has given Darfur to us as a test as one last opportunity to turn our lives toward His service. He as given us 3,000,000 lives to save. He has made it quite an easy, low risk task for us - a bully government, subject to US and world pressure, and 3 years of visibility to this unfolding horror. We have no excuses not to fight, and fight to win now.
Why is Darfur important? It is reasonable to think that if we do not find the humanity to stop such an easily stopped Genocide, that statement-Never Again- will absolutely be again, and again, and again.
7. Why should the American people care about Darfur, Sudan?The people of Darfur are our family, our brothers and sisters. He is the Father of us all. He is going to ask us what we did for the least of these in His family, our family. What will the defense of our inaction be? We didn't know? We couldn't afford it? They were poor black people? We couldn't stop it? It was too difficult? Some of us would have to skip a few weeks meals on Hunger Strike? A few of us might have to go to jail over night? A few of us will have to put our professional and economic lives at risk? Let's get on with His work.
Before our Father we have no excuses. There are many examples: Love as I have loved, there is no greater love than to lay down your life for your fellow man, the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep, do unto others all that you would have them do unto you, and love your brother as yourself. These are just a few.
I will not apologize for my belief in the Lord. I understand there are people who do not. I say to those people, do you want to live in a world of hope or despair? How about a land where everyone that protects is gone when they come for you lastly? It is better to be humane.
8. Who is your inspiration to being doing this? Who is it you admire?Jesus most of all. Gandhi, for whom Jesus was the greatest practitioner of his religion "Selfless Love," Dr. King, and Teresa of Calcutta.
9. How old are you? Why now? What stirred you to become an activist?I'll be fifty-five years old in October of this year. As a youth I was introduced to Jesus and I fell in love. I was born to wealth and as my late teens and early twenties came, I moved out from the loving cacoon formed by my extraordinary biological father. I allowed myself to be seduced by the lies of the "American Dream" of independence, take care of yourself, get comfort, get safety, get sex, get power, get a career, squander it all on your biological family and abandon and exploit all others."
I never became a bad man, but I stopped viewing the teachings of Jesus, the Son of God, as something to be lived literally. About twelve years ago I experienced what was our Father's call: "I did not put you here to make rich people richer, nor to teach your biological family that only they are family. All people are your family. Go and serve them."
Within 4 years I had moved from my computer executive career path and was a Guidance Counselor in arguably the lowest performing, largest elementary school in the country, fighting for the lives and spirits of these doomed kids. That took everything I had physically and materially. A loving non-biologiclly related family that I knew very casually read of my plight on the front of the Philadelphia Inquirer and made me part of their family.
By working in their furniture business, I nursed back to health. Then I became aware of Darfur from a Nicholas Kristof article in the NY Times. That was over two years ago.
Even as a child I saw that the world should have come to a standstill if need be to stop the Holocaust. Now I saw Genocide on my watch. I would do anything and everything in my power, I would put my life on the line to stop the Genocide. I have marched on the DC mall solo 2 summers ago. Hunger striked for Darfur 20 days last summer.
Sent over 20,000 faxes to faith organizations on the east coast, colleges and universities around the country.
10. Do you think the UN is helping, hurting, or remaining neutral on Darfur? Please explain.There is no UN. Actually, there is no US Government in Washington. There is only we the people of the world and the United States. I am trying to be neither cute, trite nor mystical in this response. We the people of the world are the government, whether or not we are in a democracy. This was Gandhi's great genius. If the people exert their will with enough resolution the Government must follow.
The streets of the world are empty of people delivering their unmistakable mandate to their officials to see that 20-30,000 UN peacekeepers be put on the ground in Darfur with a Chapter 7 mandate (ability to use force) NOW.
The UN is not the problem. "We the people" are both the problem, and we are the solution. Now, having said that, China and Russia are problems. They both have preferential relationships regarding Sudanese oil, and they are worried that UN intervention could cause sanctions that would get in the way of their profits. We have to do a better job of convincing them that genocide is unacceptable.
11. How many men, women, and children have been raped, tortured, executed, enslaved, forced to flee their homes to go to refugee camps, and how many people have starved to death for lack of aid? Please seperate those whom have already fled. I believe that number is around 2.5 million. Is that correct?
I would defer to the largest, best funded coalition of activists, Save Darfur coalition . I believe their numbers are 400,000 exterminated, 10,000's raped, 3,000,000 [million] displaced from their destroyed homes. The Janjaweed would burn the children they were not kidnapping for sex-slaves and hard labor, and then through them in the wells to poison village water. They were held in dessert camps where they faced forced starvation. They die at a rate of 2-5000 per week.
The heinous neglect from the world is now so unmistakeable to the el Bashir, he feels completely comfortable to allow his Khartoum regime to now attack aid workers with his Janjaweed Arab militia. Therefore it is forcing the life-support from these people to stay away. This is leading to expected death tolls of 25,000 per week.
12. What are the conditions of the refugee camps? How do you know?I can add little to the unanimous view of Human Rights Watch, Save Darfur Coalition, BBC, New York Times, Washington Post, Africa Action, Genocide Intervention Fund. Two-five thousand per week die due to murder from the Arab Militia, combined with forced food starvation and starvation.. We saw this in Stalin's Communism, and now we are seeing it again.
When we allow el Bashir drive the aid workers away, the numbers have started to do rise to twenty-five thousand per week begin to starve. Women go out for firewood that is needed. When they do this, the are gang raped. If men go out, the militias murder them. The children have had no school for three years now. They are not free from attacks, either. They are often slaughtered in front of their parents. If not, they are taken as slaves. When are we going to stop the slave trade? I thought it was over, but I was wrong.
13. Who is responsible for this? Directly, and indirectly.Directly, the Arab government by a Coup 17 years ago. Much more importantly , our brothers and sisters of all countries are responsible, because we have absolutely the power to protect them. Before God, we have no excuse and just as humane beings we, we need to all that we can to make this front page news.
14. Is the African Union (AU) able to protect an area the size of France withonly 7000 men?The most conservative estimates are 20,000[-30,000] troops with a Chapter 7 mandate to use force. Sudan Reeves has the most authoritative analysis. Eric Reeves is a Smith College professor dying of cancer. He has mortgaged his house so he can afford to spend what days and months he has left keeping Darfur on the world stage through his authoritative studies and articles.
15. Is the AU allowed to use force against the Janjaweed militia of the Islamic government?The AU has no authority to use force. They are window dressing to enable the neglect of we brothers and sisters around the world.
16. What religion are the Black Darfurians?The 3,000,000 in Southern Sudan that were exterminated by el Bashir were non-Arab Christians. But he is an equal opportunity butcher. In Darfur they are Muslums like him, but the fact that they are non-Arabs makes them fair game.
17. What is your opinion of this new peace deal that only the SLA signed on to?As it stands it is entirely inadequate. If it is not enhanced to better represent the needs of the Darfur people (not just the war lords who are themselves as evil as Bashir) it is a time killer. However it can be enhanced and if so done, and then enforced it will be a benefit.
18. How much area does the leader of the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) control?Minni Minnawi, who with his entourage came to meet with me two days ago, represents 4% of the Darfuries, but as much of 80% of the rebel fighting force.
19. How many Armies are in Darfur? How much terrority do they control?The armies control little if any territory, if you mean the so called rebel armies. I think there were three Minnawi's SLA remains separate, and the other 2 have merged. I think the other two may, may more truly represent the masses.The Janjaweed is the only one truly in control of territory all of it.
20. Why did the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the National Movement for Reform and Development (NMRD) refuse to sign on to the peace deal?The two that did not sign on had selfish reasons, but the truly selfish leader was Minnawi I fear. It may be that he cut the deal for himself. The others saw that it was profoundly unjust and inadequate for their people. Too little protection. Too little of the country's oil wealth. Too little representation. I hope that Minniwa performs in a way that proves me wrong. He seemed like an honorable man when I met him.
21. Is there any fighting between these Armies?Yes, there is constant fighting for territory and influence, largely so that the "leaders" can have wealth and power when the dust settles. There are no good guys that I can see. Only innocent, totally abandoned victims.
22. Have you had an opportunity to speak to the Black Causes? Have they tried to speak with you? Do they know of your existence and purpose? How?My experience with the Black Cause is limited to 3 that were here in President'ss park participating in a small rally conducted by Africa Action. I approached 2 of the 3 and because I was not a dignitary, someone that could help their selfish interests, only someone that had sacrificed everything for their Darfur brothers and sisters, they almost literally ran away from me. Kind of like you move away from garbage.
23. Do you believe the hatred for President Bush is coloring how the press covers their stories and which ones they cover?Frankly, I feel that there is little independent press left. None in the mainstream seem more than shameless entertainers and puppets of the establishment.. They are entertainment workers with no courage, and they fear Bush' influence on their careers through their corporate owners.I believe that on Darfur Bush is doing as well, or slightly better than any previous President facing Genocide and I feel the press is accurately reflecting this.
24. Do you believe the same hatred is blinding the American Liberals to the point they can no longer see suffering or the seriousness of Darfur?Hatred is not blinding Liberals or Conservatives. Our greed, selfishness and lust for pleasure, comfort and safety for me and mine is what blinds us. Embracing the lie that we are not all brothers and sisters is blinding us. We want to be blind, because this blindness is what allows us to divorce our brothers and sisters around the world, and it protects our ability to work and live only for ourselves. This is the exact opposite of what Jesus died to give us.
We want the log in our eye. That way we don't have to see and serve the least of these. What we gain through this embrace of blindness is the ocean of pleasure, safety, comfort for which we are drowning. That is what we lust for.
25. Is there anything I missed about the situation in Darfur?I think you covered everything.
26. Feel free to add anything I have not asked for which you think is important for the people to know. Please feel free to go on and on and on. I went on an on above. I am extremely fatigued today. After 24 days with no food really hit me for the first time. Sorry I've not done a better job.
There are a few notes I would like to add. In the first place, the number of murdered Darfurians claimed to be at 400,000 is the same number I wrote about in May of 2005 ! Now either I'm claravoyant (I am not) or no one else has died. Neither of these claims are true. I believe we are seeing another Rwanda. Must we wait for the movie to come out before we grieve?
Jay can be reached for comment at JyMcGinley@cs.com.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Interview: Jay's Hunger Strike for Darfur
Our senior editor, Rosemary, has had a wonderful opportunity to interview a man by the name of Jay McGinley. He is standing to the North of the White House in President's Park facing the White House. He has been on a hunger strike, and the news media deems this as non-issue. Rosemary does not. So we got a jump on a story before the New York Times. Oh, but then again, she worked for it. It was not handed to her.
There are several questions that were asked, and all of them were answered frankly and honestly-as he sees the issues. What shall be done, in order to preserve some space and keep your interest, is to eliminate some of the reduncacies. Let me first apologize for asking insufficient and out of order questions. Let us go to the interview.
(This interview took place through e-mail and the telephone. My answers shall be in bold, his shall be in regular print.)
Hello, Mr. Jay McGinley. It is nice to 'meet' to you. Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed. Would you like to get started? Yes, thank you.
1. First of all, would you like to tell us why you are on hunger strike for the people of Darfur, Sudan?I reject the notion we have unconsciously embraced. That there needs to be, that there should be, a difference in the way we treat people who live nextdoor to us, and a different standard for those who do not. I am a desciple of Jesus. He was explicit. Love your neighbor as yourself. Do unto others all that you would have them do unto you. As you do unto the least of these, my family, you do unto me. This is in my heart. People in Darfur are my family. For those who do not have faith or have a different faith, it is the Golden Rule.
Ok, so if your family in Darfur is being slaughtered, what do you do? You fight for the solution that all parties involved are calling for: "20,000 to 30,000 UN Peacekeeping Troops on the ground with a Chaper 7 mandate (empowered to use force), to protect and make these people's land safe again for farming and living. And you fight to get your fellow citizens to give a mandate to our administration that they apply all pressure necessary on Sudan's President el Bashir to allow the peacekeepers and aid workers in, unmolested, to do their jobs.
According to Samantha Power's Pulitzer prize winning analysis of the last 100 years of genocide (Problem from Hell), the battle to stop genocide has always been lost on the field of public opinion in the US. We have the power, but we as a citizenry have never raised the will. We have never found the courage to step out of our comfort zone and registered our mandate with our elected officials. So what can you do? You set about to raise the courage among your fellow citizens.
I believe in nonviolent warfare in general, and certainly in the fight to raise courage among "we the people". In all of the important such struggles in this country - Civil Rights, Womens' Suffrage, Anti-Apartheid - a small group of people have stood up with tremendous courage, given an example to millions who then stood up with them with substantial courage to unmistakably state their mandate to the elected officials. I am calling for an all out nonviolent war, or campaign, here in the US to raise the mandate that I know our elected officials want to see. I believe some of us need to pay a personal price. I am leading by example. That is why I am on Hunger strike.
2. How many days have been on the hunger strike?Today is day 75 of the round the clock vigil for Darfur at the White House. Today is Day 24 of the Hunger strike. I intend to go through Day 60 on Hunger Strike. This will put me in extreme harms way. This is where a soldier fighting for his brothers and sisters belongs. But I have a good chance of surviving, and a good soldier is neither reckless or suicidal. I am neither.
3. What do you hope to accomplish? When will you feel you haveachieved your goal?As Gandhi said, "Full effort is full victory." Our Heavenly Father is not going to ask me if I stopped the Genocide. What He will ask me is whether I did everything in my power to try to stop it. This is what I hope to achieve "doing all that I would have them do unto me.
I want to raise awareness so that others will have a similar level of commitment and sacrifice. That would spark hundreds of thousands to register their mandate through nonviolence but unmistakeable personal sacrifice, so the administration would have the mandate they need to push forward.
Specifically I want to see that which will be the catalyst to raise our will - 20 to 500 of us will gather in August at the White House for either a mass hunger strike, or a rolling one. It is possible there may be nonviolent arrests, but these will instill in our brothers and sisters around the country the urgency of the situation and the courage stand up for Darfur.
With this August's action, we can deliver to the September 17 rally planned for NYC by the Save Darfur Coalition 100,000 to 300,000 people that have sufficient courage to undertake whatever remaining nonviolent civil disobedience is necessary so that the 20-30,000 UN Peacekeepers needed by our Darfur family are deployed to Darfor without further delay.
4. Do you believe the American people are aware of the seriousness of the Darfur situation?Yes and no. It is said that the longest journey in the world is from the head to the heart. Millions upon millions of Americans have heard something about this situation, but almost none have allowed the information to travel from their head to their heart.
I am passionately convinced that the cowardly way we have reacted to the information is not what my brothers and sisters in America truly desire. I honestly believe that once they are raised to a courageous response, the joy that will be released in them will constitute their finest hour. It would be a turning point for our country. We would be back in the world's leadership in humanity and human rights that we always have aspired to fulfill.
5. Do you think the press is neglecting this issue?I think everyone in this country is avoiding this issue. I think that the press has ceased to be fighters for morality and truth, and they have become nothing more than entertainers.
They, too, have prevented the journey from the head to the heart. Also, unless some of us can successfully encourage their leadership, they will at some time in their life be ashamed and deeply regretful for the cowardice and inhumanity they are now providing.
6. What is so important about Darfur?The world knows, and has known since the Holocaust, that those suffering Genocide are the least of these. It has been said that the reason for forming the United Nations was to prevent genocide. Shortly after the Holocaust, the word Genocide was coined. Before very long all the countries of the world, except the United States, had ratified the Genocide convention which committed the world to protect such victims. After decades the United States signed the document.
The world has taken no such unanimous action toward any other type of atrocity. By definition, therefore, "victims of Genocide constitute the Least of These."
We are no longer humane beings if we will stand by while 3,000,000 of our brothers and sisters are exterminated. Just because they are native Africans and not the Arab elite who want this country?
I believe that our Father has given Darfur to us as a test as one last opportunity to turn our lives toward His service. He as given us 3,000,000 lives to save. He has made it quite an easy, low risk task for us - a bully government, subject to US and world pressure, and 3 years of visibility to this unfolding horror. We have no excuses not to fight, and fight to win now.
Why is Darfur important? It is reasonable to think that if we do not find the humanity to stop such an easily stopped Genocide, that statement-Never Again- will absolutely be again, and again, and again.
7. Why should the American people care about Darfur, Sudan?The people of Darfur are our family, our brothers and sisters. He is the Father of us all. He is going to ask us what we did for the least of these in His family, our family. What will the defense of our inaction be? We didn't know? We couldn't afford it? They were poor black people? We couldn't stop it? It was too difficult? Some of us would have to skip a few weeks meals on Hunger Strike? A few of us might have to go to jail over night? A few of us will have to put our professional and economic lives at risk? Let's get on with His work.
Before our Father we have no excuses. There are many examples: Love as I have loved, there is no greater love than to lay down your life for your fellow man, the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep, do unto others all that you would have them do unto you, and love your brother as yourself. These are just a few.
I will not apologize for my belief in the Lord. I understand there are people who do not. I say to those people, do you want to live in a world of hope or despair? How about a land where everyone that protects is gone when they come for you lastly? It is better to be humane.
8. Who is your inspiration to being doing this? Who is it you admire?Jesus most of all. Gandhi, for whom Jesus was the greatest practitioner of his religion "Selfless Love," Dr. King, and Teresa of Calcutta.
9. How old are you? Why now? What stirred you to become an activist?I'll be fifty-five years old in October of this year. As a youth I was introduced to Jesus and I fell in love. I was born to wealth and as my late teens and early twenties came, I moved out from the loving cacoon formed by my extraordinary biological father. I allowed myself to be seduced by the lies of the "American Dream" of independence, take care of yourself, get comfort, get safety, get sex, get power, get a career, squander it all on your biological family and abandon and exploit all others."
I never became a bad man, but I stopped viewing the teachings of Jesus, the Son of God, as something to be lived literally. About twelve years ago I experienced what was our Father's call: "I did not put you here to make rich people richer, nor to teach your biological family that only they are family. All people are your family. Go and serve them."
Within 4 years I had moved from my computer executive career path and was a Guidance Counselor in arguably the lowest performing, largest elementary school in the country, fighting for the lives and spirits of these doomed kids. That took everything I had physically and materially. A loving non-biologiclly related family that I knew very casually read of my plight on the front of the Philadelphia Inquirer and made me part of their family.
By working in their furniture business, I nursed back to health. Then I became aware of Darfur from a Nicholas Kristof article in the NY Times. That was over two years ago.
Even as a child I saw that the world should have come to a standstill if need be to stop the Holocaust. Now I saw Genocide on my watch. I would do anything and everything in my power, I would put my life on the line to stop the Genocide. I have marched on the DC mall solo 2 summers ago. Hunger striked for Darfur 20 days last summer.
Sent over 20,000 faxes to faith organizations on the east coast, colleges and universities around the country.
10. Do you think the UN is helping, hurting, or remaining neutral on Darfur? Please explain.There is no UN. Actually, there is no US Government in Washington. There is only we the people of the world and the United States. I am trying to be neither cute, trite nor mystical in this response. We the people of the world are the government, whether or not we are in a democracy. This was Gandhi's great genius. If the people exert their will with enough resolution the Government must follow.
The streets of the world are empty of people delivering their unmistakable mandate to their officials to see that 20-30,000 UN peacekeepers be put on the ground in Darfur with a Chapter 7 mandate (ability to use force) NOW.
The UN is not the problem. "We the people" are both the problem, and we are the solution. Now, having said that, China and Russia are problems. They both have preferential relationships regarding Sudanese oil, and they are worried that UN intervention could cause sanctions that would get in the way of their profits. We have to do a better job of convincing them that genocide is unacceptable.
11. How many men, women, and children have been raped, tortured, executed, enslaved, forced to flee their homes to go to refugee camps, and how many people have starved to death for lack of aid? Please seperate those whom have already fled. I believe that number is around 2.5 million. Is that correct?
I would defer to the largest, best funded coalition of activists, Save Darfur coalition . I believe their numbers are 400,000 exterminated, 10,000's raped, 3,000,000 [million] displaced from their destroyed homes. The Janjaweed would burn the children they were not kidnapping for sex-slaves and hard labor, and then through them in the wells to poison village water. They were held in dessert camps where they faced forced starvation. They die at a rate of 2-5000 per week.
The heinous neglect from the world is now so unmistakeable to the el Bashir, he feels completely comfortable to allow his Khartoum regime to now attack aid workers with his Janjaweed Arab militia. Therefore it is forcing the life-support from these people to stay away. This is leading to expected death tolls of 25,000 per week.
12. What are the conditions of the refugee camps? How do you know?I can add little to the unanimous view of Human Rights Watch, Save Darfur Coalition, BBC, New York Times, Washington Post, Africa Action, Genocide Intervention Fund. Two-five thousand per week die due to murder from the Arab Militia, combined with forced food starvation and starvation.. We saw this in Stalin's Communism, and now we are seeing it again.
When we allow el Bashir drive the aid workers away, the numbers have started to do rise to twenty-five thousand per week begin to starve. Women go out for firewood that is needed. When they do this, the are gang raped. If men go out, the militias murder them. The children have had no school for three years now. They are not free from attacks, either. They are often slaughtered in front of their parents. If not, they are taken as slaves. When are we going to stop the slave trade? I thought it was over, but I was wrong.
13. Who is responsible for this? Directly, and indirectly.Directly, the Arab government by a Coup 17 years ago. Much more importantly , our brothers and sisters of all countries are responsible, because we have absolutely the power to protect them. Before God, we have no excuse and just as humane beings we, we need to all that we can to make this front page news.
14. Is the African Union (AU) able to protect an area the size of France withonly 7000 men?The most conservative estimates are 20,000[-30,000] troops with a Chapter 7 mandate to use force. Sudan Reeves has the most authoritative analysis. Eric Reeves is a Smith College professor dying of cancer. He has mortgaged his house so he can afford to spend what days and months he has left keeping Darfur on the world stage through his authoritative studies and articles.
15. Is the AU allowed to use force against the Janjaweed militia of the Islamic government?The AU has no authority to use force. They are window dressing to enable the neglect of we brothers and sisters around the world.
16. What religion are the Black Darfurians?The 3,000,000 in Southern Sudan that were exterminated by el Bashir were non-Arab Christians. But he is an equal opportunity butcher. In Darfur they are Muslums like him, but the fact that they are non-Arabs makes them fair game.
17. What is your opinion of this new peace deal that only the SLA signed on to?As it stands it is entirely inadequate. If it is not enhanced to better represent the needs of the Darfur people (not just the war lords who are themselves as evil as Bashir) it is a time killer. However it can be enhanced and if so done, and then enforced it will be a benefit.
18. How much area does the leader of the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) control?Minni Minnawi, who with his entourage came to meet with me two days ago, represents 4% of the Darfuries, but as much of 80% of the rebel fighting force.
19. How many Armies are in Darfur? How much terrority do they control?The armies control little if any territory, if you mean the so called rebel armies. I think there were three Minnawi's SLA remains separate, and the other 2 have merged. I think the other two may, may more truly represent the masses.The Janjaweed is the only one truly in control of territory all of it.
20. Why did the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the National Movement for Reform and Development (NMRD) refuse to sign on to the peace deal?The two that did not sign on had selfish reasons, but the truly selfish leader was Minnawi I fear. It may be that he cut the deal for himself. The others saw that it was profoundly unjust and inadequate for their people. Too little protection. Too little of the country's oil wealth. Too little representation. I hope that Minniwa performs in a way that proves me wrong. He seemed like an honorable man when I met him.
21. Is there any fighting between these Armies?Yes, there is constant fighting for territory and influence, largely so that the "leaders" can have wealth and power when the dust settles. There are no good guys that I can see. Only innocent, totally abandoned victims.
22. Have you had an opportunity to speak to the Black Causes? Have they tried to speak with you? Do they know of your existence and purpose? How?My experience with the Black Cause is limited to 3 that were here in President'ss park participating in a small rally conducted by Africa Action. I approached 2 of the 3 and because I was not a dignitary, someone that could help their selfish interests, only someone that had sacrificed everything for their Darfur brothers and sisters, they almost literally ran away from me. Kind of like you move away from garbage.
23. Do you believe the hatred for President Bush is coloring how the press covers their stories and which ones they cover?Frankly, I feel that there is little independent press left. None in the mainstream seem more than shameless entertainers and puppets of the establishment.. They are entertainment workers with no courage, and they fear Bush' influence on their careers through their corporate owners.I believe that on Darfur Bush is doing as well, or slightly better than any previous President facing Genocide and I feel the press is accurately reflecting this.
24. Do you believe the same hatred is blinding the American Liberals to the point they can no longer see suffering or the seriousness of Darfur?Hatred is not blinding Liberals or Conservatives. Our greed, selfishness and lust for pleasure, comfort and safety for me and mine is what blinds us. Embracing the lie that we are not all brothers and sisters is blinding us. We want to be blind, because this blindness is what allows us to divorce our brothers and sisters around the world, and it protects our ability to work and live only for ourselves. This is the exact opposite of what Jesus died to give us.
We want the log in our eye. That way we don't have to see and serve the least of these. What we gain through this embrace of blindness is the ocean of pleasure, safety, comfort for which we are drowning. That is what we lust for.
25. Is there anything I missed about the situation in Darfur?I think you covered everything.
26. Feel free to add anything I have not asked for which you think is important for the people to know. Please feel free to go on and on and on. I went on an on above. I am extremely fatigued today. After 24 days with no food really hit me for the first time. Sorry I've not done a better job.
There are a few notes I would like to add. In the first place, the number of murdered Darfurians claimed to be at 400,000 is the same number I wrote about in May of 2005 ! Now either I'm claravoyant (I am not) or no one else has died. Neither of these claims are true. I believe we are seeing another Rwanda. Must we wait for the movie to come out before we grieve?
Jay can be reached for comment at JyMcGinley@cs.com.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
VOLUNTARILY SUFFERING WILL SAVE DARFUR; NOTHING LESS WILL. Hunger Strike Day 26, Vigil Day/Night 77
Only voluntary-suffering-so-I-can-achieve-something-huge is what causes huge things to happen. This is true in ALL ASPECTS OF HUMAN ENDEAVOR. To Rescue and Restore Darfur other actions are NECESSARY – 4 hour rallies, post cards, legislation, die-ins, 3 hour arrests. But these are NEVER SUFFICIENT.
* The women of Code Pink are currently suffering starvation (31 days water only hunger strike so far) and many, many arrests in DC this July to stop the carnage in Iraq. THIS WEEK IT WONE THEM AN INVITATION FROM 5 IRAQI MINISTERS OF PARLIAMENT TO DISCUSS THEIR PEACE PLAN. A MIRACLE!!! http://www.troopshomefast.org/
* Georegetown U. students suffered extended hunger strike to stop sub-living-wages for their family the staff.
* Harvard U. students did the same.
* Women’s Suffrage advocates suffered jail, humiliation, social isolation, violence.
* Jack Welsh of GE suffers 20 hour work days.
* Steven Beko, like hundreds of brothers, sisters and STUDENTS suffered banning, clubbing, torture, beatings and ultimately death by police torture to save his brothers and sisters (oppressed and oppressor) from Apartheid.
* Gandhi and his fellow soldiers suffered clubs, bullets, hunger strikes, humiliation, economic and social discrimination EAGERLY to free their brothers and sisters from British oppression.
* Bill Gates suffered the termination of his Harvard Education.
* Anti-Slavery advocates suffered death.
* Civil Rights advocates suffered firehosing, lynching, flogging, death by thousands in war, social isolation, humiliation….
* Jesus Christ started a now world-wide religion giving us the likes of Teresa, Gandhi, ML King, Oscar Romero, Jan Juste, Daniel Barrigan, Dorothy Day….
*. Etc.
* Etc.
A. DARFUR IS DEAD UNTIL WE HAVE A SIMILAR ENTRY TO THE ABOVE FOR DARFUR. THEIR SENTENCE IS ABSOLUTE DEATH, AS THINGS STAND.
B. VOLUNTARY-SUFFERING-IN-PURSUIT-OF-A-GOAL IS WHAT THE MASSES SEE AND WHICH RADICALIZES AND MOBILIZES THEM.
C. VOLUNTARY-SUFFERING-BY-CHOICE, THIS IS THE ONLY THING THAT THE MASSES CAN SEE. THEY CAN SEE NOTHING LESS.
D. THEY SEE ANYTHING LESS AS A SIGN THAT EVERYTHING IS FINE. THEIR LIFE SHOULD GO ONE AS NORMAL
The time is NOW. We must have actions NOW so that RADICALIZED, COURAGEOUS MASSES arrive at the global events being organized SEPTEMBER 17 world wide by WWW.SAVEDARFUR.ORG.
Contact me,
Jay McGinley
484 356 6243
jymcginley@cs.com
www.standwithdarfurwhitehouseii.blogspot.com
President's Park, White House north side, Washington, DC
* The women of Code Pink are currently suffering starvation (31 days water only hunger strike so far) and many, many arrests in DC this July to stop the carnage in Iraq. THIS WEEK IT WONE THEM AN INVITATION FROM 5 IRAQI MINISTERS OF PARLIAMENT TO DISCUSS THEIR PEACE PLAN. A MIRACLE!!! http://www.troopshomefast.org/
* Georegetown U. students suffered extended hunger strike to stop sub-living-wages for their family the staff.
* Harvard U. students did the same.
* Women’s Suffrage advocates suffered jail, humiliation, social isolation, violence.
* Jack Welsh of GE suffers 20 hour work days.
* Steven Beko, like hundreds of brothers, sisters and STUDENTS suffered banning, clubbing, torture, beatings and ultimately death by police torture to save his brothers and sisters (oppressed and oppressor) from Apartheid.
* Gandhi and his fellow soldiers suffered clubs, bullets, hunger strikes, humiliation, economic and social discrimination EAGERLY to free their brothers and sisters from British oppression.
* Bill Gates suffered the termination of his Harvard Education.
* Anti-Slavery advocates suffered death.
* Civil Rights advocates suffered firehosing, lynching, flogging, death by thousands in war, social isolation, humiliation….
* Jesus Christ started a now world-wide religion giving us the likes of Teresa, Gandhi, ML King, Oscar Romero, Jan Juste, Daniel Barrigan, Dorothy Day….
*. Etc.
* Etc.
A. DARFUR IS DEAD UNTIL WE HAVE A SIMILAR ENTRY TO THE ABOVE FOR DARFUR. THEIR SENTENCE IS ABSOLUTE DEATH, AS THINGS STAND.
B. VOLUNTARY-SUFFERING-IN-PURSUIT-OF-A-GOAL IS WHAT THE MASSES SEE AND WHICH RADICALIZES AND MOBILIZES THEM.
C. VOLUNTARY-SUFFERING-BY-CHOICE, THIS IS THE ONLY THING THAT THE MASSES CAN SEE. THEY CAN SEE NOTHING LESS.
D. THEY SEE ANYTHING LESS AS A SIGN THAT EVERYTHING IS FINE. THEIR LIFE SHOULD GO ONE AS NORMAL
The time is NOW. We must have actions NOW so that RADICALIZED, COURAGEOUS MASSES arrive at the global events being organized SEPTEMBER 17 world wide by WWW.SAVEDARFUR.ORG.
Contact me,
Jay McGinley
484 356 6243
jymcginley@cs.com
www.standwithdarfurwhitehouseii.blogspot.com
President's Park, White House north side, Washington, DC
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