DARFUR/JAY: "APOLOGY ACCEPTED"

From one of the very kind emails I have received, from someone I am not clear that I have met, or know (forgive my dreadful memory?):

Jay,

Your sincere apology should be enough to calm the most righteous indignation (reference the two posts this blog: DARFUR, URGENT: What would Rachel Corrie or Steve Beko start THIS WEEK? and then JAY WOUNDED. LEAVING DARFUR STRUGGLE. ) You used what you saw as a heroic act to motivate those of us wringing our hands in safety. Keep fighting, Jay. Your words and actions are needed now more than ever.

Sincerely, xxxxx xxxxxxx

Jay's reply today:

Dear Sister,

What a lovely, loving note.

Last night after watching an Academy Award winning documentary American Dream about a failed strike attempt at a midwest Hormel plant, we noticed an "added feature," "Children of the Night" it was called. It was a brief documentary of footage from among the 1,600,000 children exterminated in the Holocaust. I am so sad, distraught over our pitifully timid and cowardly response to Darfur. Oh my God, where is the outrage? Where is the intolerance of one day more, one hour more of genocide??!?!!?!?!?!? What type of creatures are we? I want to explode, not AT anyone, but I want/need to be a much louder scream than yet I have been, LET'S STOP THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The world should have stopped, EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE STOPPED THEIR NORMAL LIVES IN THEIR TRACKS TO STOP THE HOLOCAUST. Anything less is a heinous insult to human dignity and worth. "This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop. I don’t think it’s an extremist thing to do anymore."

My God, why don't we see this?

I'm quite sobbing uncontrollably right now. I'm so confused. I just do not understand us.

I think that we should begin, BEGIN a worldwide all out FAST on October 5th, the day that STAND is planning a one day abstinence from snacks. One day abstaining from snacks. Oh my God. What about those 1,600,000 children from the Holocaust? OCTOBER 5TH "START to RESCUE DARFUR FAST". Open ended. We eat when the Genocide is Stopping, NOT BEFORE! Would history say this was TOO RADICAL? TOO MUCH? AN OVERREACTION TO 4,000,000 BEING EXTERMINATED? Full time activists like me - water only. People in school or holding "normal" jobs - 1,000 calories. Equal. COMMITTED. PROPORTIONAL RESPONSE. UNEQUIVOCAL MANDATE. JUST. SOLIDARITY. WORTHY.

I think I would pay any price to wake us up. But I am losing hope for us. I have no idea what to do, personally. Oh activities? We can get lost in those forever for Darfur. I mean, proportional response not to make ME feel better, but to STOP THE GENOCIDE NOW.

Brother Jay
ps: You've very much helped me at a difficult time. I'll post this on the blog in such a way as to remove your ID. Thank you. www.standwithdarfurwhitehouseii.blogspot.com