"Across the Ocean, their Genocide Endures"

This past Sunday, with my colleagues from UUSC, and among a large group of Darfur activists, I attended Boston’s Global Day for Darfur rally on Boston Common. Similar events were organized in numerous cities.

What struck me most was that, in my view of the gathered crowd, it seemed like this movement to end the genocide in Darfur is taking a strong hold among youth and young adults. Rebecca Hamilton, a third-year law student, and one of the founders of Genocide Intervention Network, spoke from the podium with conviction beyond her years and energized the crowd for action.

Ben Crair from Slate wrote about the rally taking place in Philadelphia: “Oncoming traffic slowed to observe the human mass, which radiated with drumbeats, a ship of noise floating down a concrete canyon. The drummers, African-American teenagers from the Mount Airy Church of God in Christ, followed the leaders, quaking the pavement with their rhythms and trailing a hodgepodge of Americans, Darfurians, and Sudanese.”

But, as he goes on to note, what we do each following day with the energy gained from rallies like these will make the difference.

“As the drumbeats dissipated, the circle unraveled, and people began heading home. The Darfurians looked happy to be united for a few hours on a quiet Sunday with a city that on the following day would resume its routines. Across the ocean, their genocide endures.”