Saving Darfur 4/30/06 Washington, DC

You know, I think we Americans are a very fortunate bunch. We do our fair share of complaining, be it about politics, leadership, or lack thereof, about the price of gas and the lack of good public transportation outside of the major cities, about religion in the public domain, too much, too little, about the right to smoke cigarettes and the right to breathe air without second hand smoke, about too much censorship, too little censorship, about too many immigrants, not enough immigrants, about too high taxes, too few social programs. We Americans, as my grandmother might have said, "have what to complain about." But we are lucky all the same. We go to bed at night without fear of our neighbor turning against us, as they did in the former Yugoslavia where the Croats, the Serbs and the Muslims turned against each other, and in Somalia where the clashes occurred between the Hutus and Tutus, and in Ireland where Protestant and Catholic neighbors turned one against the other.

The United States continues to be a work in progress where a huge number of heterogeneous people live, if not side by side, in close proximity and remain united as Americans, be they Black, White, Jewish, Christain, Muslim, Hindu, be they descended from Italy, Germany, Puerto Rico, Nigeria, Poland, Roumania, Egypt, Israel, China, Japan or the Puritans who came over on the Mayflower. We do not see things eye-to-eye and we do fight amongst ourselves, but so far the plan, put in place all those years ago when the founding fathers sat and wrote our Constitution, has continued to work. We do not have ethnic wars. We do not have one group murdering, rapeing and systematically eliminating another group, without fear of reprisal. We live in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-religious society and though we may not always celebrate the differences, we do always tolerate them and remain one people under the Constitution.

On Sunday, April 30th, I went with some friends to the Rally in Washington DC to "End the Genocide in Darfur." It happened to come at the same time as the large rallies and marches in NYC and around the country regarding Immigration and this, I believe took away some of the thunder of the Darfur rally. Still, it was a memorable day and one which I believe had some influence on our leaders, as can be seen by the actions that were taken shortly after the rally. As of May 5th, a final agreement between the Darfurian rebel armies and the genocidal government of Sudan was reached. The US government had a major role in this plan. And many thousands of Americans had a role to play, as well, in their outcry against the genocide. Let us pray the peace plan is carried through.

I hope these pictures tell the story of the day...

11 AM arrival. Only three hours to wait for the rally to begin!

Our Gang

Port-A-JohnniesMy friend Debbie and Me
Debbie and Shari

How many and how varied the rallies and marches this Capitol Buildiing has seen through the years!

The Maine contingent, organized by Adam Zuckerman, a Maine High School student.

Temple Emanuel from Dallas, TX made these beautiful signs. A man was passing them out and gave one to me.
Dear President Bush: These 500 dolls represent the number of people dying every day in Darfur. Please act NOW to end this Genocide. We must uphold the imperative. "Never Again" Signed Staff of Temple Emanuel of Dallas Texas

Not on our watch. Save Darfur
12 noon...still pretty sparce in people

Rally volunteers. Instead of mourning a genocide. STOP ONE

Our little group

Every generation represented

Photographers and sound men getting ready
..to remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of al.. -Elie Wiesel

1 PM Just an hour to go...stretching our legs with a little walk

The upside-down sign reads Stop Genocide in Russian and English. As the gentleman in the blue cap told me, they were a group of Jewish Russian Immigrants coming to DC from Brooklyn

Cornell University Hillel

"Be the change that you want to see in the world."

People on the Washington mall wore skullcaps, turbans, headscarves, yarmulkes, baseball hats and bandanas. There were pastors, rabbis, imams, youths from churches and youths from synagogues. They cried out phrases in Arabic and held signs in Hebrew. But on this day, they said, they didn't come out as Jews or Muslims, Christians or Sikhs, Republicans or Democrats.

UJA Federation of NJManhattan College

Good Sheperd Sisters

A throwback to Woodstock

Group of Darfurians who escaped and now live in Portland, Maine
The Darfur rally in Washington brought together an unusual coalition, including Jewish groups fighting against genocide and Muslim refugees from Darfur. One of the co-sponsors of the event is the American Jewish World Service.
The Portland delegation's trip to Washington was organized by Adam Zuckerman, a student at Deering High School who's active in his synagogue. He raised thousands of dollars to ensure that local refugees and others could attend the rally.

The rainbow that circled the sun that shone over the people that spoke out for Darfur hate...off love...on

I recieved muh attention because of my sign, even if it wasn't really mine.

At the risk of trivializing the genocide, one has to admit, it is a good sign!
Whoever saves one life, saves the entire world -TalmudSome songs preceded the speakers

Eli Wiesel and Holacaust survivor

Russel Simmons, speaker at the rally

Police on hourseback at the end of the day

Originally posted on May 9, 2006 on Sherril's Myriad of Musings