Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day (thanks to Bob Hayes for reminding me).
Here’s my suggestion for what you can do today, or in the next couple of days, that I think is appropriate: Go check out the Genocide Intervention Network’s list of ten things you can do right now, and do at least one or two.
Here’s my letter to President Bush:
Dear President Bush,
During your first year in the White House, you wrote in the margins of a report on the Rwandan genocide, “Not on my watch.”
I urge you to live up to those words by using the power of your office to support a stronger multi-national force to protect the civilians of Darfur.
As I type this email, it is Holocaust Remembrance Day. Like most Jews of my generation, I was taught that the single most important way to honor the victims of the Holocaust is with the simple vow “never again.” Never again, will we allow genocide to happen while the world stands by and watches.
But it has happened again, and again. It is happening again, right now, as I write. As many as 400,000 have died so far, and many more will die if the Western World doesn’t find a way to say – firmly, unmistakably, and with a real commitment of troops and resources –
Not now. Not in Darfur. Not anywhere.
Never again.
Sincerely,
Go to A Million Voices for Darfur to send a message of your own. It seems to me that if bloggers decided to push this in the next few days, for Holocaust Remembrance, that might generate a lot of signatures. I’d like to encourage Alas readers to go there right now and send a message – it really will take less than a minute.
I also donated $30 (here’s the donation page – they take credit card and paypal), and filled in the “in memory of…” field to indicate that the donation was in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day.
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Thank you for that post! It prompted me to write a post on the subject on my own blog.
Thank you for this post, Ampersand – and today seems like a good time to send a similar message to my country’s leader.
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From what I’ve been reading, the present (and all too recent) efforts by President Bush and Sect’y of State Rice have gained the attention of Al-Queda et. al. Their response apparently is to claim that the current conflicts in Darfur were initiated by the U.S. in the first place, and that any efforts to involve the West in any way should be met with jihad. If we get involved over there, Americans are going to end up coming home in boxes.
Or you can come to DC this Sunday for the Save Darfur Rally. I think I just might head up there myself.
Oh, for a list of confirmed speakers, go here. Barack Obama is one of them.
As an Illinois voter, I need to ask; what’s the big national deal about Barak Obama? I just don’t see what’s so remarkable about him. I don’t see what particular reason he’s given me to vote for him in his next election. What has he done for Illinois (the state whose interests he’s supposed to be representing).
Ron, I live in Illinois, too. I don’t look to my U.S. Senators to make changes within Illinois…what are you looking for, wasteful pork, spending Federal dollars in your region? Sens. Obama and Durbin do a great job, from my perspective, at representing my political positions at the national level. I’m to the left of the Democratic party, generally, and I’m largely pleased with Obama and Durbin’s voting records.
A little late on that. Holocaust Remembrance Day was yesterday.
http://history1900s.about.com/cs/holocaust/a/yomhashoah.htm
Amp, a very powerful and moving post.
When I was a teenager, we asked Holocaust survivors come to the school and tell their stories. Every year it was a different group of three or four, because it was so emotionally wrenching to listen to these histories. Never Again! should be something that every high school graduate knows about, and why and what _they_ can do to prevent it.
BTW, have you been to the Holocaust Museum yet? Wow.
I like Obama because he was the only one who said anything about civil liberties at the 2004 Democratic convention.
RonF:
American men are going to end up coming home in boxes, men who were targetted for recruitment because they were men.
Unfortunately if someone doesn’t intervene, the Janaweed will continue to target men and boys for murder. When women are girls are specifically targetted, Feminists call it male privilege. When men and boys are targetted, Feminists don’t usually notice, but if you point it out to them, they call it male privilege. Go figure.
There is an excellent online research for studying the Holocaust and all
related information.
http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/
H.E.A.R.T Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team
Their Mission:
Today there are many resources available for those wishing to learn more of
what the world has come to know as “The Holocaust” – the planned
extermination of entire ethnic, religious, political, and other groups by
the government of a sovereign state, Germany, and her allies during the
years 1933 -1945. Memorials, museums, and sufficient books to fill entire
libraries are devoted to the subject. But the advent of the internet has
created a new, globally accessible source of information on the Holocaust.
Some of this information is valuable, often unique. Much of it, poorly
researched and sourced, is not. The hateful writings emanating from the
twisted minds of those who would deny the reality of what is irrefutable are
much worse.
-H.E.A.R.T