As a citizen of the United States, I am completely outraged by our foreign policy regarding Sudan. It is a sad day for all American citizens when we (President Bush, Colin Powell) openly admit to the ongoing atrocities afflicting Sudan’s Darfur region, referring to the continuous massacres with one word that should immediately instigate action, “genocide,” but as of yet have effectively accomplished nothing to stop it. Even while the United Nations denies the act of genocide in Sudan, the U.N. Security Council admits that terrible acts against humanity are occurring regularly in that region. And yet again, the United Nations has effectively done nothing to stop these terrible acts of violence.
Have we actually reached a time in history in which the only way to stop the brutal killings of hundreds of thousands of people is to follow laws laid down in conventions and
act only when certain terms are used? Using terms such as “genocide” and following guidelines laid down in human rights conventions are important but must not be the sole purpose behind action. It seems that we are ignoring or have lost
the value of the most important
thing on earth: living, breathing,
human beings.
It’s not that we are ignorant on the issue but that we have consciously stepped aside, accepting the role of a spectator. We have watched the torturing and killing of loving wives, mothers, husbands and fathers. We have witnessed the countless slaughter of brothers, sisters, sons and daughters by the hands of their heartless enemies. Worst of all, and what is truly unjustifiable, we have seen the innocence of a child stripped away by the simple movement of a finger. The finger attached to men of true evil.
Must we be reminded that the families of those who are maliciously slain love their families to the full extent that we love ours? That they feel the same anguish when their beloved dies? That they, like us, are filled with the ugliest feeling in the world when death is involved?
Understanding that state of sorrow, do we really wish that ugliness upon someone else? Are we actually conditioned in such a way to only help people not because they need help, but because we have our self-interests in mind? Do we only act when we will become the beneficiaries, not the people in dire need?
I could not feel this passionate about the issue if we as a nation were incapable or unaware. But we are both fully capable and aware of our options to act. The only question we consider is should we act, are we willing to act. Thus far, it is clear that we are simply unwilling.
As a plea from an American citizen to the elected leaders of the most powerful nation in the world, I urge a flaunt of power. If only those leaders can muster up the strength and courage to act as leaders in this desperate time of crisis, others will follow. We have not gotten to where we are as a nation by playing a minor role in world affairs.
Although it is a heavy burden,
it’s one that we have taken on in the past, and I urge this nation’s leaders to take the initiative in actively, passionately and proudly stopping the massacres perpetrated against the
Sudanese people.
–William Hathaway, Eugene