I just spent the better part of an evening watching a documentary called Sand and Sorrow, about the genocide in Darfur and our sad tendency to want to ignore it, even as we say “Never Again!” to the abstract idea of allowing genocide to happen.
I am moved. I’m not sure what to do with my mostly emotional reaction at the moment, but I know I need to do something… (Uh oh. This need to do something has driven me in unpredictable directions before…)
But some general reactions while I allow the greater necessity for action to sink in, and consider directions I must take…
I was on the fence about watching this documentary–it was produced by HBO and some well-known activist types from Hollywood, and I wasn’t sure if it would just be an infuriating collection of heartstring-pulling and pointing the finger at favorite political scapegoats… (And yes, there was definitely some of that, but they seemed to be able to restrain themselves and stay on the point for the most part.) Also, I’m never sure what to do when I watch something like that… Something about seeing man’s inhumanity towards man (or, to be gender-neutral, the unspeakable cruelty that people are able to visit upon their neighbors) gets me riled up to an extent that nothing else does.
After all, you can feel sadness about the tragedy wreaked by natural phenomena, and anger that people weren’t better prepared for it or more organized about the recovery efforts, but ultimately, you can’t completely subdue nature, and we all know it. On the other hand, when this kind of devastation is caused by human hands and the darkness in human hearts, it is preventable, it is something that you can address and take action to solve. Not any one person, but groups of people. We’re a world community now; we should be setting up the necessary methods to disallow this sort of thing.
There seemed to be a mostly-unspoken understanding that the American government should step in and provide a military solution to what was/is going on in Darfur… I’m not convinced that is appropriate. Unless you really do think that we are “Team America, World Police” that’s more complicated than it seems. But NGOs and faith-based organizations can have a great impact on this sort of thing, and I’m sure that if more Americans who feel keenly that injustices in the world should be righted would step in, and maybe spend a year raising money and maybe shipping food, clothing and blankets or medical supplies to these people, and actually went there and helped to make a difference… If more of us in developed countries would sacrifice our own comforts, even for a time, to make lives better in other parts of the world, including sharing our skills and knowledge about how to build functioning civil societies and self-supporting communities, we could make a difference.
I’m all for awareness-raising and all that, but if all we do is gather in rallies, cry and hold hands and sing “kumbaya,” we’re not going to achieve much. And yes, all voices should be heard, but after a while, all the talking is too much and people just need to shut their traps and go out there and change something. Witness the difference that Mother Theresa made by stepping in and making things happen… on the scale that one person is able to do…
All that being said, I find myself oddly proud to be a part of a country, of a world, where people who have so very much are so moved to better the lots of those who have so much less… or nothing. I think we just need to harness our energy to see wrongs made right. Hmmm.
Posted by Kjirstin 
