The Sound of the Drumbeat

A steady stream of action and advocacy is exactly what we need. The Drumbeat for Darfur Campaign couldn’t have launched at a better time for me. After attending the huge Save Darfur rally in April 2006, I was sure that we finally made enough noise for all of America to hear. I was sure we signed and sent enough electronic and paper postcards to fill the White House. I was sure that there would be an immediate response from the Bush administration and Congress, and that action would be taken to finally put an end to this horrible genocide happening in Darfur.

Unfortunately, we had not made as much noise as I thought and the postcards failed to fill the minds in the White House with the thoughts and concerns of the people in America. So with all the effort and planning that went into these huge events, did anything really change for the people in Darfur? With all the mail that got delivered to the White House, was any of it even opened? What were we missing? What did we do wrong? These are the thoughts and questions that filled my head before the sound of the drumbeat. Before the sound of the drumbeat there was only silence – a dead silence.

Finally, the silence has ended as the drumbeat has begun! This is a very exciting time for me because it gives me new hope that we can help save the people of Darfur. All of the questions that flooded my mind for the last four months have been answered by the sound of that drumbeat. From here on out, I will march to the sound of the drumbeat as I try to do everything that I can think of to spread the word and get -- but most importantly keep -- people involved until this genocide is a part of history that will never happen again on our watch.