Not On My Watch

I'm really excited. On Sunday (April 30), I am going down to DC with a few other people from my church, for the Rally to Stop Genocide. Since 2003, the Janjaweed militias have been attacking and destroying villages in the Darfur region of Sudan, raping, burning, and killing as they go. So far 400,000 people have been killed in Darfur, 2.5 million have been displaced, and 3.5 are going hungry. The militas are even attacking refugee camps and the violence is spilling over into neighboring Chad.

This rally is exciting to me, because this is a problem that we resolve. There has already been some forward motion, and rather than gathering to protest our government's actions, we are rallying to encourage the US government to put political presssure on the government of Sudan, support relief efforts, and support UN peacekeeping efforts. One of the reasons that this conflict has not been resolved sooner is that China, one of the permanent members of the UN Security Council, has oil deals with Sudan. China does business with Sudan, we do business with China, the knee bone is connected to the leg bone, etc. Funny how oil runs our world.

Anyway. when President Bush took office, he was reading a report about the Rwandan genocide of the 90's, and wrote in the margins, "Not on my watch." This rally is essentially a big fat reminder for the President, that he said he wouldn't allow genocide on his watch. The Save Darfur Coalition is trying to collect 1 Million postcards (in paper form, as well as on the internet) to present to the White House. The campain is called One Million Voices for Darfur. The postcard, as well as information about the conflict, and the rally, can be found at the Save Darfur website. We can really do something about this.

PS. I just found out that George Clooney is speaking at the rally!!!!!!!