LYRICS BY SANDRA HAMMEL ~ "...Needing no where to go, Because I'm already here..."

I am working through my feelings of being finally old. I have never wanted to be older than I am. When most kids looked forward to being older so that they could do certain things, I was feeling different. I never wanted to be older than I was. And most of my life I looked younger than I was. When I was substitute teaching in my early career as a teacher, another teacher approached me thinking I was a high school student and I had to tell him that I was a substitute teacher hired to work that day in the school that he taught in.

I have been journaling about this. Every day I look in the mirror and want to see the younger me. Now, I find I want to be a different age. Just not older. I often yell out when I am home alone: "I don't want to be old." But something has happened that I have said that if I can solve it about my health, that I will accept being old.

I am contemplating starting a new blog just on this subject. There are many of us in my generation that are walking into old age. And I can't be the only one that feels like I do. But in the meantime, here I post about this subject. I wrote a song about it called "More Alive". And below are some lyrics that I wrote today, but the music hasn't been attempted yet.

If anyone wants to repost my lyrics, please keep in mind that my name should be with the lyrics and a link to this post. It is only the right thing to do. And it would be good to put this up and trust you.

NOW

by Sandra Hammel
April 10, 2011, Sunday, 5:12 p.m.

All the things we do, so we can live tomorrow,
we can live tomorrow,
so little thought in living today,
living today.
What's in the worry that serves us well?
What's in the moment that freely can accept joy?
The beautiful?

I don't want to feel guilty because I feel wholly here.
Because I feel free to live outside what is inside,
Free to feel,
Free to fly,
Free to know today and know I'm home.
Needing no where to go.
Because I'm already here.
Needing no where to go.
Out "there" is all right here.

❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧

I had so much fun working on this video posted below. It is from a movie camera that is before movie cameras had sound. And if it weren't for my video teacher who demolished the plastic cartridge that the original film was in and then gave me this in a form that I could post it at Youtube, Vimeo and Facebook, I would be limited to seeing it on my wall at home with the old movie camera that "burns" a lot of the films that I have in these old cartridges. The color was so poor, that I added a lot of sepia in the iMovie software and it looks like it has very little color this way, but it is better than the overly pink rendition that is was in.

❧TERROR WALKS TONIGHT ~ One Act Play ❧

❧ NEWPORT PLAYERS GUILD ❧

❧ CASINO THEATRE ❧

❧ NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND ❧

..................................................

..................................................

❧This is one of my many callings in life!! Comedian. ❧This play was presented in the 1927 Casino Theatre sometime in the mid 1970's before the $5.2 million renovation completed in 2010. For 23 years the theatre was shut due to structural safety hazards. Actors Charlton Heston, Vincent Price and Orson Welles had acted on this stage. It was used as storage space for the International Tennis Hall of Fame (which share the grounds with the famed theatre) and was collecting cobwebs and dust. Sandra Hammel, Newport, Rhode Island, USA

..................................................

..................................................

..................................................

..................................................

Screen shots from the video









The Original Flyer for the One Acts
I wished that they'd put the year on programs and flyers.

Raw title: Terror Walks Tonight #1 720x480 4,3.mov

GENOCIDE FLOURISHES WITH THREE MAIN THINGS ~ MEDIA NEGLECTS DARUR

Genocide flourishes when there are perpetrators, weapons suppliers and Leaders Who Lack the Will To Hold the Perpetrators Accountable.

At a time when the world is focusing on the January referendum on Southern Sudanese independence, Darfur must not fall off the agenda of policymakers around the world. Doing so could result in a repeat of history and unmentionable violence and despair for the people of Darfur.

Darfuri child's artwork of his experience during the Khartoum government's support of genocide on Darfuris

........................................................

........................................................
Salve Regina University student ~ Edwin Mutanguha's speech about Darfur ~ From Rhode Island Torch Relay

Camera for speech: Sally Hanchett

Note: One jpeg image of a Darfuri child's experience of what happened to him in his life (with text: "Peace is not the absence of war, but the presence of justice") is by a Darfuri child who lives in a refugee camp.

CORRECTION ~
The jpeg by Lucas is a painting made by a USA boy who made it for Darfuris.

☙☙☙☙☙☙☙☙☙☙☙☙☙☙☙☙☙☙☙☙

Make a Difference

Call 1-800-GENOCIDE ~ ask Secretary Clinton to immediately hire a high-level diplomat for Darfur.

Here's how:

1. Dial: 1-800-GENOCIDE
2. Follow the instructions on the recording to be connected to Secretary Clinton's office.
3. You'll probably be asked to leave a message. Here's what to say:
* Say your name
* Say the name of your state
* Then say: "I urge Secretary of State Clinton to immediately hire a high-level diplomat for Darfur."
Source: blog for darfur

Media Neglect

As has been true a lot, the Darfuri people have been forgotten and neglected in 2010 by the leaders of the world. As the attacks continue in 2010 upon the Darfuri people, most USA media neglects to cover the story. And the USA government has been a part of that neglect. With the attention on the two Jaunuary 9, 2010 referendums, where Southern Sudanese and Abyei will vote to separate from Sudan, the attention on Darfur is even less than has been the case. The website ~ stopgenocidenow

Stop Genocide Now i-ACT team is returning to the Darfur refugee camps on the Chad-Darfur border in late 2010. They will be uploading same day web casts from the camps. The SGN iAct team will also be establishing the school to school relationships for the Darfur Dream Team Sister Schools Program.

Help in donations for the trip to the refugee camp in December 2010. Donations are for the following ~
$20 - Rechargeable Battery Packs
$30 - Digital Cameras
$35 - Portable Video Cameras
$100 - Flip Cameras
$250 - Satellite usage for initial reporting

The digital and flip video cameras will be given out to refugee reporters (mostly youth). Through their eyes, we will learn about their lives. Information on the cameras will be uploaded and by satellite viewing will be available for the world to see. From stopgenocidenow

Tags trying to edit in: Salve Regina University, Edwin Mutanguha, ilovemylife Sandra Hammel, ACT NOW FOR DARFUR, Sudan, President Barack Obama, Omar al-Bashir,

PROVIDENCE OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY ON BEHALF OF DARFUR AND SPEAKING TO CHINA

I DID SOMETHING I HAVE NEVER DONE BEFORE AND IS WAY OUTSIDE THE BOX OF MY COMFORTABILITY RANGE. I organized for the DREAM FOR DARFUR campaign a Torch Relay and Ceremony for my state of Rhode Island. As an activist for the people of Darfur, I want the slaughter, maiming, raping, starving, terrorizing them, the burning of their villages to end. I want the human beings on the planet who have freedoms to stand up and speak out and pressure those who have the leverage to influence Sudan to stop the genocide on the Darfuri people. Edwin Mutanguha, left, from Rwanda, passes a torch to his brother Edward Mutanguha, both freshman at Salve Regina University, on the steps of the Statehouse in Providence, R.I., during the symbolic 'Dream for Darfur Olympic Torch Relay', Saturday, Oct. 27, 2007. Rhode Island Darfur activists held the Providence leg of the torch relay which will happen in combination with 60 torch relays across the United States. A peace conference in Libya is part of an international effort to try to end over four years of fighting that have killed more than 200,000 people in Sudan's western region of Darfur. (AP Photo/Stew Milne)

Murakoze Edward and Edwin!

On the right in the back is Channel 12 news who interviewed Edwin Mutanguha.
I missed our event on television Saturday night and all day Sunday
when I hear it aired repeatedly.

Walking up the South Side of the Rhode Island Statehouse

The Providence leg of the symbolic Olympic Torch Relay took place last Saturday, October 27, 2007 - the same day that Libyan leader, Moammar Gadhafi, had so-called Peace Talks in Sirte, Libya for the Darfur situation. Call me a cynic, but I don't have faith in Moammar Gadhafi. And I have no faith in Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir who "says" there will be a cease-fire. I don't know how he can say there will be a cease-fire on his government's behalf, because he has always claimed that they weren't "firing" any weapons. How do you stop what you aren't doing?


Our Torch Relay event was a part of the on-going symbolic Dream for Darfur Olympic Torch Relay that is currently traveling to more than 60 cities across the United States, as well as the international Torch Relays that have already taken place and will take place before the Beijing, China Olympics open next summer.

Edward Mutanguha leading us around the Rhode Island Statehouse to the north side for the Ceremony on the plaza side.

In the summer of 2008, athletes from around the world will be competing at the XXIX Olympics in Beijing, China. The theme of these games – "One World, One Dream". But the world is asking: Can the Olympic Games truly stand for "One World, One Dream" while China is underwriting the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan? China buys more than $2 billion worth of oil from Sudan. The Khartoum regime has used much of its oil wealth to commit mass atrocities in Darfur, including arming militias that are attacking villages. In addition to being empowered by an influential voice on the United Nations Security Council, China continues to import 70% of Sudan’s oil. With those funds Sudan purchases weapons from China, which are used to commit genocide on the people of Darfur.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
From Our Providence Torch Relay's Torch Lighting at Waterplace Park
What Was Said...

We meet here to stand with the people of Darfur. We honor the Darfuri families, who live with injustice with every breath they take. Instead of participating in and watching the Olympics of Beijing, China next summer, they will be living under a tree, piece of plastic or makeshift shelter. After a moment of silence - we will walk the unlit symbolic Olympic torch to the front of the Fidelity Office where we will light it. (Fidelity Investment Company takes American citizens' mutual funds and invests in Chinese oil companies, PetroChina and Sinopec, in Sudan - thereby funding the genocide with USA citizens money.) The gong will be struck 8 times to signify the beginning of our Torch Relay on behalf of the Darfur people, who should be included in the Beijing, China Olympics, whose chosen theme is ONE WORLD, ONE DREAM. The number 8, Chinese number, ba, is considered the luckiest number. It is no coincidence that the Summer Olympics in Beijing will open on 8/ 8/08 at 8:00 p.m. While our symbolic Olympic torch was lit, the three statements were said in unity:

€ This flame honors those who have been lost and those who suffer.
€ This flame celebrates the courage of those who have survived.
€ This flame symbolizes the hope we share for an end to the violence in Darfur and an end to genocide everywhere.”

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

This ceremony today is a way to address the Darfur crisis – a way to demand that international community takes action now. We choose this Torch Relay as opportunity to tap into the ideals of the Olympics, but also to call on the host of the 2008 Olympics, the government of China, to do more to help end the genocide. Your presence today shows your concern for Darfur – those gathered here are acting in ways our leaders should, but have not. Today, we gather to call on China to take immediate and urgent action on Darfur. All of us here - and joined by activists around the country, and the world - are part of a growing anti-genocide movement – a powerful civil-society force that is working to address the Darfur crisis, and to be powerful and informed enough to address genocide anywhere as unacceptable. There are 60 Torch Relays in 60 cities taking place in the United States over a few months time.

Edward Mutanguha

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

While I have been thinking about this day, I remembered when my father invited an Olympic track star to speak at our high school’s annual athletic banquet. I grew up in Indiana and my father was a high school teacher and coach. This track star was the son of a sharecropper and the grandson of a slave. He also was the first American in the history of Olympic Track and Field to win four gold medals in a single Olympics. The story of Jesse Owens is relevant to today’s Torch Relay event. The year that Mr. Owens became world famous was in 1936 at the Berlin Olympics, that are also known as the Hitler Olympics. It is worth noting that on March 22, 1933, the first extermination camp was opened in Dachau, Germany and began its ugly business of committing crimes against humanity that later was called – genocide. So at the same time that the death camps were operating, people and Hitler were sitting in the stands watching the Olympian athletes in Berlin compete. The Olympic Torch Relay as we know it today was actually introduced at the very Olympic games in Berlin in 1936.

Today, the Official Website of the Beijing Torch Relay states “The Olympic Flame is the highest symbol of the Olympic spirit. The Olympic Torch Relay is a celebration of human peace and friendship. Under the guidance of International Olympic Committte, Beijing is working closely with the relay cities around the world, widely promoting the theme of ‘One World, One Dream,’ upholding the torch relay concept that is ‘a journey of harmony’ to make the Beijing Olympic Torch Relay a complete success.”

I dare to say - that complete success is not possible, if the “journey of harmony” is soiled by the lack of extending the theme “One World, One Dream” to Darfur. China needs to use its influence with Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir, to help bring the genocide to an end.

While the Olympics’ host country has the world’s eyes on it, we ask the 2008 Olympic theme to not exclude the Darfuri people, but to include the Darfur people. While it sits on the UN Security Council, China supports the Sudanese government…the government who has been coordinating the genocide in Darfur with the janjaweed for over four and half years with weapons purchased from China. Darfur is a part of the world and needs the Olympic dream desperately.

Like the irony of the Berlin games in 1936, the 2008 Beijing games will have its own irony if China ignores its role in the Darfur genocide.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Three Things to do were given to the crowd:

1. The current bill in the Senate – SUDAN ACCOUNTABILITY & DIVESTMENT ACT – referred to as S-A-D-A, SADA, must be passed over any Presidential veto. The House sister bill passed 418 to 1. You can help and ask our Senators to sponsor this bill by calling 1 – 800 – GENOCIDE. “We the People” have power that needs to be utilized.

2. Learn about divestment by going to www.Sudandivestment.org or www.investorsagainstgenocide.org

3. Go to www.dreamfordarfur.org to the the “Take Action” page and sign the petition to the International Olympic Committee .

Use Your Voice for people who presently have no voice. Let us not be defined with our inaction or lack of speaking up when the right thing to do is to speak up and until we are understood. Genocide Stops With Us.

We thank you so much for attending the Olympic Dream for Darfur Providence Torch Relay. We use this torch relay to highlight the ideals of the Olympics, while calling on the host of the 2008 Olympics, the government of China, to do more to help end the genocide in Darfur. As you can see, you are part of something powerful and important. We stand here today and call for an end to the Darfur crisis. We know Americans want to help the people of Darfur, and participating in our relay and taking our actions is an important way to do this.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Submitted for www.savedarfur.org website:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.) were the words that began the day.

On October 27, The Providence, Rhode Island Dream for Darfur Torch Relay and Ceremony was welcomed by student and community activists, in spite of the forecast for rain. In Rhode Island’s first opportunity to come together and stand united with people around the world, the message was for the Beijing Olympics theme of “One World, One Dream” to include Darfur in The Dream.

Lighting the torch at the Fidelity Investment Company door, a symbolic Darfur family, the Mays, began the relay after the 50 gathered people cited three statements of solidarity for the Darfur people and 8 gong strikes – the Chinese lucky number - by ten-year old Sara Mays. At the RI Statehouse lawn, Edwin Mutanguha carried the torch up the hillside of steps handing the torch to his twin brother, Edward Mutanguha. Edward carried the torch to the stage at the Statehouse plaza to the song of “Miyela Africa” where the crowd grew to 180. The t-shirts worn by the crowd stated “I CARRY THE TORCH FOR DARFUR”.

Speakers included U.S. RI Representative James Langevin, Providence Mayor David Cicilline, Mindy Wachtenheim, Board of Director member of the Holocaust Education and Resource Center in Providence, Rhode Island, Scott Warren, Executive Director of STAND and Sandra Hammel, the Providence organizer. Keynote speakers were twin nineteen year old Rwandans, Edward and Edwin Mutanguha, freshmen at Salve Regina University in Newport.

Edward and Edwin shared their personal stories of their life with genocide. The attendees were leaning in listening to both young men tell us their perspectives of living as refugees for 7 years: speaking to a man who had his arm chopped off to keep his head from being severed in Rwanda’s genocide, being told by the elementary school principal not to eat fish in the river because their countrypeople’s bodies were floating down it in 1994, feeling uneasy and unwelcome living as a refugee. Edwin said, “Today I stand in front of you as a student, a fellow human being and a responsible citizen of the world. Today, we are all uniting for a common cause, all from different backgrounds, but with one thing in mind, to be responsible for each other and be conscious of what is going on around us. Our world is becoming a global village and it is no longer possible for us to live obliviously and inconsiderately.”

Edward spoke from his heart “I would like to remind everybody about something that you have that the rest of the world envies; your FREEDOM. With this freedom, comes rights. I urge you to use your rights as citizens of a free nation to help the people of Darfur obtain their freedom and their right to live.”

The Mutanguha young men’s wish is for people to know what is happening to the Darfur people and to do what it takes to stop the genocide. Edwin asked “Let us do all that is in our power to ensure… a beacon of light. I implore you to change the message that we are sending to our brothers and sisters in Sudan. Let’s change ‘Never Again’ to ‘Not Now, Not Ever; Not On Our Watch!’”

Edward and Edwin brought their classmates from Salve University

Applause broke out when Sandra Hammel said "'Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.' We are here to say we are not silent about Darfur." (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Music was provided by the RI Darfur Ensemble, including “A Prayer for Africa” in Swahili, African instruments accompanied “Kwaheri”, also in Swahili. “One Voice” with Darfur lyrics infused and the inspiring song, “Stand Up for Love”.


Attendees signed the Dream for Darfur Petition to the International Olympic Committee to tell the IOC: “Bring the Olympic Dream to the People of Darfur”.

Edward Mutanguha signing the Rhode Island screen to be forwarded to Washington, D.C. for the December 10th Olympic Torch Relay on Human Rights Day.

We got media coverage from the following places. I have removed the links as they no longer take you to the relevant article.

Libya on Yahoo! News Photos

Newport This Week

Newport Daily Newspaper

CBS local station, Channel 12 aired a news clip October 27 and 28.

A Providence Dream for Darfur Torch Relay video will be uploaded at Youtube.

Murabeho.

WHEN TWO WORLDS ARE ONE

I never met him. He saw a flyer I posted on his small college’s campus, Salve Regina University, in Newport, Rhode Island. I was told the students don’t read flyers…not to expect anything from the posting of the Torch Relay that I was organizing for Darfur for our state. www.dreamfordarfur.org I wrote my email address on it and left it in the hands of the person in charge of bulletin boards.

Within a couple of days I received an email from a student. We talked and it was clear from the first sentence or two that the flyer was welcome by Edward. Edward and his twin brother were born in exile from their country of Rwanda in Kampala, Uganda, due to the unrest after the 1994 genocide. He now is attending college 20 minutes from my home. We talked several times on the phone. I went off to Washington, D.C. and Edward and I called each other trying to find funding for him to come to the www.standnow.org National Conference “Make This the Year” (to end genocide). Having failed at getting him funding, we continued until I met him Thursday evening with several socially and morally interested students in supporting efforts to educate about genocide and the crisis in Darfur, Sudan. Edward is totally committed to this.

After the meeting Edward stayed and we shared our views about the genocide, the US and the world. Here is a young man that is conversant in the world’s stage. I sat talking to someone that I had had several phone conversations with and email exchanges.

The difference in our ages is 40 years. But the importance of our meeting is that we can help each other in our similar dedication to educate and act to elevate the issue of man’s inhumanity to others. Here I was hearing a young man, who knew personally what it feels like to have the international community turn its back on a people who were being hacked to death...yes, while we just went about our daily lives’ routines. While we were being inundated with OJ and Monica Lewinsky’s dress stories, we pulled out of Rwanda just as it was getting worse. We abandoned people in dire need. We did the opposite of what we should have been doing.

Matthew 25:31-46

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

As Edward put it: This is a man-made problem so we can change it.”

Edward’s uncle is a high officer in the African Union troops in Darfur right now.

I am currently spending all of my waking hours on the “Carry the Torch for Darfur” event in Providence, Rhode Island for October 27, 2007. (Except for writing this post.) This event is a part of the international and national Dream for Darfur campaign.

After a rehearsal of young people this morning at my house for the Darfur event, I needed a break from all of the pressured concentration on the event preparation, so I sat here at my computer and watched YouTube. Beautiful ones. And the stark contrast was, here on my screen, this is what humans can do…this beautiful work and yet what is happening in Darfur and the complicity of the rest of the world is the other side of what humans can do. A view from a distance is always easier. But......but, as Edward and I sat there in agreement over the fact that we must, must get well-informed and stop avoiding the truth of these horrific stories of our inhumanity. Inhumanity that includes this shameful, ignorant behavior of leaving a desperate people languish because we’re okay, so that’s all we care about. As Edward says he believes in karma...that what we do and don’t do in the name of what is good and right will come back to haunt us. What we are doing in Iraq will have repercussions generations down the historical road. And we both agree that those consequences will not be the ones that we HOPE we will be getting. Ignorance is not bliss and we have a President who has taken us down a road that will not have a good “return”.

I love the arts. Music, drama, dance, art work. Beauty really that is created at the hands and the conceptions of humans. I find these Youtube submissions an example of “Wow…that is what we as humans can do that is extraordinarily awesome and inspiring." Go to links and watch them in full-screen by clicking at the lower right of the little YouTube screen.

…………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOhb7uc8IGU
Let Me Fall
Cirque Du Soleil "Bungee" from the Saltimbanco spectacular, performed to Josh Groban's collaboration for Cirque

…………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4KQ1EUhjI8
Cirque du soleil Water Ballet

…………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhHixicVS4k
Cirque du soleil
Show: Varekai - Handbalancing on Canes by Olga Pikhienko

>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:
The Beijing Summer 2008 Olympics theme is
ONE WORLD, ONE DREAM

Nice thought, but China needs to be responsive to the Dream for Darfuri families who have not only been having genocide perpetrated on them by Sudan's governmentally-sponsored janjaweed - but China has blocked action on the United Nations Security Council many, many times. The Security Council's unanimous vote on July 31, 2007 to send U.N. Peacekeepers into Darfur must receive continued leverage by all and especially by China.

wwww.dreamfordarfur.org