ANOTHER LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA

On the first day of the new school year, all the teachers in one private school received the following note from their principal.

Dear Teacher,

I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no man should witness:

Gas chambers built by learned engineers.

Children poisoned by educated physicians.

Infants killed by trained nurses.

Women and babies shot and burned by high school and college graduates.

So, I am suspicious of education. My request is: help your students become human. Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths, educated Eichmanns.

Reading, writing and arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more human.

From Haim Ginott's book, Teacher and Child.

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Uploaded June 21, 2009 by stopgenocidenow

Below is the message I just sent to President Obama using this:

Regarding: Don't leave the Sudan policy to Gration

October 7, 2009

Dear President Obama,

How long is too long?

How long can good leaders, such as yourself, stand by and do nothing to end the genocide? (Since 2003 for unarmed Darfuri civilians). The comment by U.S. Sudan Special Envoy Gration in the Washington Post…

"We've got to think about giving out cookies (to the Government of Sudan)," said Gration, who was appointed in March. "Kids, countries -- they react to gold stars, smiley faces, handshakes, agreements, talk, engagement."

…illustrates that General Gration is not a good match for the job that he has.

GENOCIDE IS NOT OKAY. ALLOWING genocide is a defining issue - more than we human beings – who are the highest form of living things - want to admit. I don’t want to be defined by the fact that we didn’t play a role in ending this thoroughly wrong and embarrassing behavior.

I respectfully call upon you to personally get involved and fulfill the promises to Sudan you made on the campaign trail.

I challenge you to do what is right about something that is very wrong. Genocide will or will not end with us. Which will it be for you, our best chance to get this right(?)

We are visitors on this planet.

We are here for ninety or one hundred years

at the very most.

During that period,

we must try to do something good,

something useful, with our lives.

If you contribute to other people’s happiness,

You will find the true goal, the true meaning of life.

H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama

Regarding the indicted President Omar al-Bashir and how he treats his own citizenry:

No justice, No peace.

Thank you, President Obama, for providing hope that something right will be done for the Darfuri people.

We continue to wait.

Sandra Hammel

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Thinking alone, does not make a human being human. Feeling is also needed.

What tomorrow needs is not masses of intellectuals, but masses of educated men...men educated to feel and to act as well as to think.

Charles Silberman, from his book, Crisis in the Classroom

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Comments to President Obama:
202-456-1111
or
1-800-GENOCIDE

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Darfuri Refugee Camp

June 26, 2009

Uploaded by stopgenocidenow

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Uploaded by stopgenocidenow

A Darfuri refugee, Husna, receives her food rations at Camp Oure Cassoni in Eastern Chad.

For one month, she and her family of five will have to survive on:

2.5 oz of salt
6 cups of sugar
11 lbs of cereal
8 cups of oil
25 cups of yellow split peas
70 lbs of sorghum (grain)

and sometimes soap is provided

I tried one day to live on an appropriate amount from this list.

It was unpleasant.

Hard to imagine how day in and day out and for years - people live like this

....and these are the lucky refugees who live on this.

Others have no rations.

Call For U.S. Leadership on Sudan

Enough and other advocacy groups continue to express concern with the current direction of international policy on Sudan. A coalition of 23 international advocacy groups sent an open letter to senior diplomats in attendance in Moscow at a high level meeting yesterday on Sudan to voice "deep concern" about Sudan's current trajectory. The conference, the letter noted, comes at a critical time within a short "window of opportunity" to prevent a return to war with crucial milestones, including the national election and referendum on southern independence, approaching in the next 15 months. Read the letter here.

The Washington Post last week painted a troubling portrait of U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan Major General Scott Gration's seemingly conciliatory approach to dealing with the ruling National Congress Party in Khartoum. The article quoted General Gration as saying that diplomatic efforts should focus on "giving out cookies," because countries "react to gold stars, smiley faces..." In reaction to these remarks, members of STAND delivered a gold star and smiley face to the Sudanese embassy. Read a joint press release from Enough, the Save Darfur Coalition, and the Genocide Intervention Network in reaction to the article here, and a roundup of reactions from around the blogosphere and the administration's attempts at damage control here.

Read a Huffington Post blog by Enough's Executive Director John Norris outlining four key issues that the administration's policy review needs to address.

Were you distraught about the Special Envoy Gration's remarks, as published in today's Washington Post? Voice your concerns to President Obama through this petition created by our friends at GI-NET.

If you were troubled by what you read, a survey of the blogosphere today indicates that you are not alone. The White House was especially bothered by the attention. (We don’t remember the last time we saw the word ‘wild’ used so many times by an official spokesman.) Here's a recap of some of the reactions today…

ABC’s Jake Tapper captured the White House reaction to the Post article. White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said the story “wildly misrepresents” actual policy that is being developed towards Sudan. According to Vietor the administration does not intend to provide incentives to the Sudanese regime until there are verifiable changes on the ground. He claimed that the Post’s Stephanie McCrummen trivialized Gration’s views and used quotes “cobbled together out of context.”

Interestingly, the administration at no point denied Gration’s comments—only that they were misrepresentative of actual policy.

A post by Bec Hamilton, a human rights lawyer and author, corroborates many of McCrummen’s points. (And Hamilton would know; she was there with Gration too.) A particularly insightful point from Hamilton:

The “cookies” and “gold stars” comments ["We've got to think about giving out cookies," said Gration . . . "Kids, countries, they react to gold stars, smiley faces, handshakes, agreements, talk, engagement"] were bizarre - so bizarre that Gwen [Tompkins of NPR] piped up and basically asked Gration if he realized how it sounded. Gration quipped “It’s your job to work out how to not have it come across like that.”

That is a disconcerting philosophy coming from the man charged with the delicate diplomatic task of implementing peace in Sudan.

Students at Tufts University are also riled up, calling Gration’s appointment as Special Envoy, “the latest and most gratuitous indication of the administration’s negligence toward the civil war-torn country.” Elizabeth Dickinson, writing for Foreign Policy’s Passport, underscored just how frustrated everyone in the Sudan policy community is with Gration— except for the government of Sudan.

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Camp Darfur Aims to Enlighten

Edina students fight to stop genocide

Published : Wednesday, 07 Oct 2009, 10:55 AM CDT

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (FOX 9) - Young people around the Twin Cities are flocking to a traveling exhibit touring area high schools that's bringing attention to not only the genocide in Darfur, but to other human tragedies around the world as well. If you think kids don't have empathy for others who lives are in peril...this will change your mind.

Read the full article: twincities.com

While We Wait Sudan

Join the Fast for Darfuris

www.savedarfur.org

www.stopgenocidenow.org

Help - Use Your Voice

1-800-GENOCIDE

NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed people could change the world.
Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead

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Darfuris' Obama School
Uploaded March 30, 2009by iACTivism

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Oh.....and,
Chinese Open
Rafa Nadal versus James Blake
Round 2
Thursday, October 8, 2009
3 a.m. US EDT