From a really excelent blog:
Atlantic Review
A press digest on transatlantic affairs edited by three German Fulbright Alumni
... and this specific link.
Darfur: Finally some Transatlantic Cooperation to Discuss "the Next Steps"?
Dear brothers and sisters of Atlantic Review.
Some of you seem to share my desire for us to take action beyond writing. Make no mistake, writing, blogging, analyzing have a place IN EVERY STRUGGLE. BUT, SO DO FEET ON THE STREET! And, there is no chance so far that history will write that "people did not TALK / blog / write enough about Darfur." My hope now, ALL OF MY HOPE NOW at this stage is for feet on the street. Currently, history WILL WRITE that all we did was... TALK. Nero fiddled while Rome burned....
OCTOBER 5th STAND (Students Taking Action for Darfur) is organizing a 1 day. OK, LET'S TURN IT INTO THE START, T-H-E S-T-A-R-T of a worldwide FAST, that we stay on until the GENOCIDE IS ENDING, NOT BEFORE. Is this too radical!?!?!?!!? Does Genocide warrant less?!?!!!? Is this an OVERREACTION TO GENOCIDE? YES, we would almost certainly fail in the attempt. YES, if we got it off the ground and 1,000's participated the effort might fail. SO WHAT!?!?!? As your uniquely brilliant and helpful Alfred Adler said, "Courage is doing what needs to be done, whether or not you know you will succeed."
Some loose FUNCTIONAL AND OPERATIONAL patterning after the TroopsHomeFast.org effort could be executed.
Full time activists like me - water only. People in school or holding "normal" jobs - 1,000 calories. Equal. COMMITTED. PROPORTIONAL RESPONSE. UNEQUIVOCAL MANDATE. JUST. SOLIDARITY. WORTHY.
STUPID IDEA YOU SAY? Two responses. 1. "If at first the idea is not absurd, it has no hope," Albert Einstein; 2. GIVE ME A BETTER IDEA. I'll run with it, even if you don't. I'm going to do something, my best shot. This global Fast idea is my best so far.
OUR YARDSTICK FOR MEASUREING SUCH IDEAS MUST NOT BE "WILL IT WORK." THIS IS THE QUESTION OF BYSTANDERS. THE QUESTION OF THE COMMITTED HUMANE BEING IS, "WHAT IS MY BEST SHOT, MY BEST CHANCE IN THIS SITUATION, TO SAVE AS MUCH OF MY DARFUR FAMILY AS POSSIBLE."
For more on this idea: DARFUR Dying for Heroes
To join the FAST-TILL-IT STOPS with us: JOIN RESCUE-DARFUR-FAST-TILL-IT-STOPS
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Wow, this is a really great question.
For me, the purpose of this Fast would be to give people the opportunity to express their total commitment, their total mandate as human beings for immediate ending of the Genocide.
I've made myself a full time activist, so water only could be the right expression for me. For a student or someone in the labor force, that could be 1000 calories - that could be just as big a commitment.
Code Pink is running TroopsHomeFast.org to end the Iraq war. They are VERY open endded - everything from 40 day water only to one day liquids.... I'm not sure that is what is needed here. We have LOTS of outlets for partial commitment provided by Save Darfur, etc. I just pray there are lots of us that NEED something more proportional with genocide - something that can express our TOTAL commitment to our family in Darfur, and to ending Genocide, NOW.
Dear Racoon,
From the standpoint of making sure I am "successful" with any western notion of life succes, what I am doing and proposing is VERY unrealistic. But from the prospective of a "brother" whose family is Darfur, all of it, I am being consumately realistic. If, IF I could get millions on Fast as the clearest possible indication of mandate to their governments to make the Genocide stop, it would. Right? Will, ultimately popular will is the strongest force on the planet right?
Why Darfur? Never have so many been in a position to help so many at so little individual cost to themselves. And, if we don't rise to such an "easy" opportunity to exercise our humanity, we will NOT rise to anything else. We'll just continue our downward spiral into deathly, cancerous, corrosive selfishness. Game over life-worth-living on planet earth.
By mid next week we hope to have built a new site that pulls together info pertenant to your questions about the fast, that currently is scattered all over this site.
If you haven't seen it please check out www.DarfurDyingForHeroes.blogspot.com. Might help with your wonderful questions for now. Also, searching around on this site might help. Try "Samantha," "Rachel," and scan down thru the blogs. A lot of what you ask is answered, but scattered around.
jay
Post a Comment