Last December, during UUSC's D.C. Days of Action, Rev. Bill Schulz, UUSC's board chair, gave a talk on a trip he made to Kalma camp in Darfur. I was particularly touched by a story he told about seeing a woman in tattered rags wearing a beautiful piece of glass around her neck as a piece of jewelry. When Schulz asked her what it was, she replied, "It is me." It is me....

The story shows that no matter what squalor and degradation people are subjected to, they find ways to overcome their circumstances and bring some form of hope and beauty into their lives. This is what makes us human. This woman in Darfur, no doubt having been subjected to violence and destruction that most of us cannot imagine, still holds onto what is beautiful, her sense of identity, herself.

As the Olympics came to a close and we saw the athletes standing on pedestals wearing gold, silver, and bronze medals, I thought of this woman wearing the glass around her neck and all the other women who are struggling in Darfur.

Although the situation in Darfur is dangerous for all, women and girls are especially vulnerable to violence. In some camps, women make up 80 percent of the population. They show pure determination to survive in conditions of dignity. They work together to protect themselves, leaving their camps together, trying to find safety in numbers. They share their food and water with each other. They work together to form women centers and to speak to leaders about their needs.

Women and girls in Darfur are heroes without medals. Their stories may not be broadcast on NBC, but they can be shared in line at the grocery store, at your next town hall meeting, or over dinner with a friend.

As UUSC works with partners to weave a web of protection for women and girls in Darfur, we need concerned citizens to raise awareness and build solidarity in cities and town around the United States. One way to do this is to order free UUSC Drumbeat for Darfur materials to use in your community.

Click here to order free UUSC tent cards that your community can use to urge the Senate human rights subcommittee to oversee the UNAMID mandate to protect Darfurian women and girls from violence.

We need to demand that our legislators take action to protect women and girls in Darfur. We need to make their struggle as visible as the gold medals around the necks of the athletes at the Bejing Olympics. We need to remember the woman with the glass around her neck who is determined to survive, and do our part to bring hope and beauty back into their lives.

A storm is brewing as Tropical Storm Gustav barrels into the Gulf of Mexico. Three years after Katrina and Rita hit the Gulf Coast, the people of South Mississippi are bracing themselves again by loading up on emergency supplies and tuning in to storm advisories.

But another emergency already hit Mississippi earlier this week - this time it was the force of the I.C.E., not wind and rain. On Monday, August 25, hundreds of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided the Howard Industries plant in Laurel, Miss. Almost 600 workers were detained, including a dozen minors and several pregnant women. It's reported that about 186 children were not picked up from school on Monday because their parents were in detention. Hundreds of small children have been left without their mothers.

As one of the only community-based workers' rights institutions in the state of Mississippi, UUSC Economic Justice partner MPOWER is on the scene, supporting families to connect with their loved ones in detention, helping make arrangements to ensure children are cared for, and working with local organizations and churches to address the humanitarian needs.

MPOWER (Mississippi Poultry Workers for Equality and Respect), based in Morton, Miss., is focused on building the capacity of poultry-processing workers to combat abusive labor practices in the industry, with particular attention to building solidarity between Latino immigrant and African American workers. As a "worker center," MPOWER also provides labor rights education to workers in other industries all over Mississippi, and through advocacy and organizing, responds to urgent needs faced by workers as they arise. This week, the staff of MPOWER has been actively providing assistance and support to the workers and families who have been most affected by the raid.

So much uncertainty looms on the horizon, as workers and their families affected by the raid also await the impending tropical storm, the path and strength of which is, naturally, unpredictable. MPOWER reports that Mississippi workers' minds are brimming over — a swirl of memories awakened by the anniversaries of Katrina and Rita, anticipation of the equally unpredictable ICE — first Postville, now Laurel, and "where will they go next?"

Just last month, I was in Mississippi to provide technical support to MPOWER. During the course of the days that we were working together on long-term planning, developing their board of directors, and connecting with other UUSC partners, we were called to action as we learned of an arrest of a poultry worker at the Koch Foods chicken plant, just a block from the MPOWER office. The worker who was arrested was a young, single mother of a two-year-old girl. MPOWER helped to find a temporary guardian for the little girl while her mother awaits trial, but you can only imagine the ripple effect of this same trauma happening to hundreds of children.

"For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you made me welcome."

Fortunately, the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance (MIRA) — a partner of the Rights in Humanitarian Crises program that was supported by UUSC to work with immigrants in Mississippi to claim and defend their rights in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita — is working to provide legal representation for the detained workers. But I can't help but wonder if the workers will truly have access to the due process that is promised by this country. Will they be sufficiently informed of their legal rights? Will they be provided meaningful access to legal representation? The connections between workers' rights, civil liberties, rights in humanitarian crises, and immigration in this country are inextricable.

As we celebrate Labor Day this weekend — and as we strive every day to uphold the inherent worth and dignity of every person, and to promote justice, equity, and compassion in human relations — let us remember the workers and their families in Mississippi who are weathering the storms.

There was no lack of symbolism in the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, least of all Lopez Lomong, a former Lost Boy of Sudan adopted by a family in Tully, N.Y., being the bearer of the American flag. He was just six years old when his family was attacked by the Janjaweed and he was forced to become a child solider.

Lomong is a long-distance runner. He acquired the stamina for this skill by running the 30-kilometer stretch around his refugee camp every day.

The track-and-field events of the Olympics are always one of the favorites. During the last few weeks, they have been a staple of NBC's prime time schedule.

There are many reasons why people run, but few of them can land you on prime time television. In Darfur, as we watch these events, there are women running for their lives from armed attackers. They are breathing hard and sweating, unable to speak, but we do not hear or see them.

Gadija and her two young sons are running. Before the Janjeweed came to destroy their village and kill her husband, they were very well off. They owned 120 sheep and 3 horses. Now they are living under a collection of rags, held up by four sticks. After the attacks, they ran to the hills, but there was no food or water, so they were forced to enter a camp in South Darfur.

Each day Gadija leaves her small sons to work in the fields near her camp, so that she can earn enough money to buy food. She has been in her camp only a short time. So far, she has not received any food aid. As a result, she is forced to face the hurdles of danger as she leaves her camp to earn money. She is forced to sprint to a safe destination. She has acquired the stamina to survive, although there are no cameras or reporters to capture this feat.

Just as Lomong's determination to compete in the Olympic Games came from seeing the 2000 Summer Games on a black-and-white television in Kenya, I hope that Gadija's story will inspire you to reach out across the world and do what you can to help protect women and girls in Darfur.

One of the crowning glories of the Beijing skyline is the new National Aquatics Center, also known as the Water Cube. Not only is it a sight to behold, it is also an environmental marvel. Its outer "membrane" captures and recycles thousands of gallons of rainwater. Given Beijing's record of drought, this is critical. In fact, over the last 50 years, annual rainfall in Beijing has decreased by 50 percent.

Where there is a will there is a way...

Inside the Water Cube we see athletes "going for the gold" in a deep pool of blue. The average Olympic-sized swimming pool holds 660,625 gallons of water, but the Water Cube's holds over 792,000 gallons. The collection of this water — this precious resource — in one building, for this purpose, is truly a marvel.

Where there is a will there is a way...

Thousands of miles away, in Darfur, many people living in camps must survive on as little as half a gallon of water per day. This is happening even though the World Health Organization has declared that a minimum of 6.6 gallons per person per day is needed to meet basic human needs.

Where there is a will there is a way...

Not only is the amount of water available inside many camps astonishingly low, but the process of collecting the resource is extraordinarily dangerous.

Amina's story is not unlike stories of other women in Darfur. She lives in a camp in north Darfur where water collection is always a dangerous process. There is water in the camp; but of the ten water pumps, only four work with any regularity. This means that many women must go outside their camps to get water for their families, sometimes walking up to two miles.

This is a very dangerous task because women are subject to attack by armed men each time that they leave their camp.

Amina tries to make the water last, but she still needs to leave her camp three times a week to collect it. Because Amina is pregnant, she is worried about losing her baby from the stress and physical toll of making the trek for water. She has a 12-year-old daughter who has offered to go in her place, but Amina is worried about her daughter being attacked and raped when she leaves the camp. Who should go? How should they decide?

Where there is a will there is a way...

Recently, the "discovery" of one of the largest freshwater resources in the world — the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer — in the Darfur region was announced, even though scientists have known about it for years. According to some experts, it encompasses 53 percent of Darfur. It would cost roughly $40,000 per borehole, and well, to connect 20,000 Darfurians to water from the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer.

Where there is a will there is a way...

The amount of water in the National Aquatics Center pool where Michael Phelps won his eight gold medals is equivalent to the minimum amount of water needed for 7,500 women and girls in Darfur for the duration of the Olympic Games.

China spent $200 million to build the Water Cube.

It would cost approximately $4.2 million to provide a reliable source of water for all 2.1 million internally displaced people in Darfur by tapping into the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer.

Where is the will to ensure that those living in camps have access to the water they need to survive?

The Coca-Cola Company has been an Olympic partner since 1928. This year, it is the holder of the exclusive right to sell nonalcoholic beverages at the One World One Dream 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. This not only gives Coca-Cola access to existing world markets, but also access to millions and millions of consumers in China.

China is Coca-Cola's fourth largest market. Some financial analysts project that it will become number one. Coca-Cola has created new drinks for China. And its Chinese website features a colorful Olympic theme.

Coke executives, like Marketing Director Andres Kriger, are hoping that their Olympic advertising, and subsequent brand recognition, will help endear 1 billion Chinese consumers to their product.

In addition to Coca-Cola being an advertising juggernaut, they have sought to become a positive corporate force in the world. Coca-Cola Company has released a public Human Rights Statement, expressing support for principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In its 2006 Corporate Responsibility Review, Coca-cola states, "We respect the human right principles embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and strive to ensure that human rights are respected by our business partners."

The company confirmed this commitment by voluntarily signing on to the United Nations Global Compact. The compact's first two principles state, "Businesses should support and respect the protection of international human rights within their sphere of influence" and "make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses." Does this include business dealings in China?

China continues to support the actions of Khartoum through over $10 billion in commercial and capital investments in Sudan. It has also served as an impediment to the United Nations' making any serious inroads to peace in Darfur. Due to the inextricable economic and diplomatic links between Khartoum and Beijing, China is in a unique position to help push forward peace negotiations. How does this complicate Coca-Cola's business interests in China?

It is clear that the Coca-Cola Company is concerned about the crisis in Darfur. It donated $750,000 to the Red Cross and Red Crescent to provide humanitarian relief in Darfur. This exemplifies their striving to be responsible corporate world citizens.

But now we must ask them to act in accordance with their own expressed human-rights principles and use their influence in China to pursuade Beijing to act immediately to help to end the genocide in Darfur. Otherwise, its silence must be viewed as complicity.

Horses are noble creatures, relied on for work and transportation for millennia. Equestrian events were first introduced to the Olympic Games in 1900, with competitions such as jumping and dressage. This summer, we will see the power and beauty of horses, as Olympic riders guide them though courses to demonstrate their grace and agility.

But in Darfur, riders and their horses often represent different qualities, bringing death and destruction to untold numbers of civilians. These riders are called the Janjaweed, or "The devil on horseback."

Backed by the Sudanese government, the Janjaweed militia has but one directive: to drive the people of Darfur from their villages and secure as much land and resources as they can before the end of the five-year conflict. Women and girls in Darfur are especially vulnerable to violence by these "devils on horseback." Armed groups of militiamen attack women and girls when they leave their camps to search for firewood, water, and grass for fodder.

Amara is one of these young women. She lives in a camp in South Darfur. Because armed groups attack and hijack many of the trucks bound for the camp, there are no consistent humanitarian-aid deliveries to the camp.

Amara has learned to make and sell baskets at the women's skills training center to supplement her income and provide for her family, particularly when rations are low or unavailable. But to make her baskets, Amara must leave her camp to collect grass.

Even though Amara should be protected by African Union patrols whenever she and other women and girls leave the camp, there are not enough patrols to ensure their safety.

Once, when Amara and two other women were out collecting grass to make baskets, a group of armed men on horseback attacked, beat, and raped them.

How can we help protect Amara and her friends from Janjaweed and other militia attacks? The answer is that the international community must make the protection of women and girls a priority and fully fund and staff patrols for IDP camps, like Amara's, in Darfur.

As UUSC President Charlie Clements wrote in his August 10, 2008, letter to the editor of The New York Times, "Darfur civilians, women and girls in particular, can ill afford a second year of a still understaffed peacekeeping force that is handicapped by political delays. Despite the politics, we must figure out the best ways to protect the civilian population, especially women and girls, struggling to survive at camps for internally displaced people."

Photo by Pierre Holtz for UNICEF

On August 8, 2008, at 8:08 a.m. (CST), the world will watch the most spectacular Olympics opening ceremony ever orchestrated. The Olympic torch will reach its final destination, and for the first time in history, fireworks will form the image of the Olympic rings in the sky. As we gaze on in wonder, we will see the power and beauty of fire.

But for many others in the world, fire has a very different meaning.

Twelve-year-old Hadija has lived in a camp in south Darfur, with her mother and six brothers and sisters since her village was set ablaze by Janjaweed militia. The Janjaweed, backed by the Sudanese government, have waged a "scorched-earth campaign" against the people of Darfur, clearing the region of millions of Darfurians, many of whom now live in temporary camps in Darfur and Chad.

To ensure that her family has enough money to buy food, Hadija must leave her camp each day to collect firewood, which she sells or trades at the market.

But for women and girls in Darfur, fire and the need for firewood is a source of both destruction and survival.

Because there are too few peacekeepers to protect her, when Hadija leaves her camp, she risks being captured, raped, and beaten by militiamen.

As we watch the opening ceremony in Beijing, who will be watching to make sure Hadija arrives home safely? Who will be putting out the fires of scorched villages?

While television might not bring the heroic struggles of Darfurian women and girls to your living room, their spirit, as they overcome all odds, truly deserves our attention.

 

The following blog was written by Giles Holt, UUSC's JustWorks intern, during Freedom Summer: A Civil Rights Journey 2008.

On our Civil Rights Journey, it became apparent to me that what Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, the Congress of Racial Equality, and others were fighting for was not just civil rights. These men and women were engaged in a struggle for human rights. They were fighting for a common dignity.

I embarked on this journey to learn about part of our nation's history. At first, my approach was academic. Yet, when history still lives on, that approach is impossible. I ended my journey with an entirely new conception of what I was doing.

For the first half of our week together, I remained unchallenged. I could walk into a museum, listen to a speech about the history of the place, read the plaques, and leave feeling contented that I had broadened my perspective. I was learning, but I could have sat at a desk and received a lot of that same information.

But a transition from history to life, and from trip to journey, began to take place as the week progressed, as our workshop facilitator Dr. Kimberley Roberts led us through discussions of equality and humanity, and as the lessons presented at various historical sites began to strengthen. I found that the facts, dates, and morals that I was learning only became understanding as I put them into direct action.

On Thursday and Friday, we applied our historical and moral lessons. We traveled to the Bethesda Church in Brighton, Ala., one of thirty churches in a small city of 3,600 people, with a membership of around one hundred. While the church had undergone significant renovations, it was still in need of extensive work. The outside paint was peeling, and there appeared to be water damage on the inside. But this did not deter the minister or the congregation from committing to a course of social action and leadership in their community.

The congregation had applied for — and received — a grant from Home Depot to repair several houses in the community. This is where we came in.

With a group of forty-two Civil Rights Journey participants, we were able to work on four work projects in Brighton.

My team was assigned to Mrs. Ethel Young's house, a two-story building. Mr. Norman, the project coordinator and a leader in the Bethesda church, arrived to check on our team. Placing a hand on my shoulder, he asked, "Do you need anything, brother Giles?" This recognition of our shared place in a struggle that has come to encompass so much of our nation affirmed my humanity in a way that I had yet to experience.

It was through our service and action that we were able to take up the civil-rights and human-rights struggle that was started so many years before, and for two days, we won that struggle.

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Today is a birthday. It's the 43rd anniversary of Medicare, and around the country, people who care about health care — or the lack of it — will be taking birthday cakes to their representatives' and senators' offices, asking them to support Rep. John Conyer's H.R. 676 - Improved Medicare for All.

What a paradox it is that 80 percent of Americans think that the government should guarantee health care for everyone, and, yet, there is little political support for it. It is still considered a socialist-leaning proposition, although we are the only industrialized country in the world without a national health-insurance system.

H.R. 676 would provide: primary care and prevention, inpatient care, outpatient care, emergency care, prescription drugs, durable medical equipment, long-term care, mental-health care, dental services (other than cosmetic dentistry), substance-abuse treatment services, chiropractic services, basic vision care and vision correction, and even services such as hearing aids. Everyone with a government-issued health insurance card would be entitled to these services anywhere in the United States without having to pay deductibles, copayments, or coinsurance.

We have come close to having such a system of national health insurance at least twice in the past century. The first time was under Theodore Roosevelt, who supported national health insurance because he believed that no nation could be strong when its people are sick and poor. Many European countries adopted forms of compulsory health insurance around this time, and momentum was building here too, until WWI. As anti-German sentiments and fear of Bolshevism swept the country, health insurance was denounced as a "Prussian menace" or tarred as a communist ploy. A fatal mistake at that time was to include a funeral benefit in the plan. While popular with the working class, it was seen as a threat to the huge insurance industry, which sucked dollars out of the poor who feared a pauper's burial.

It would be another forty years until genuine momentum built again for a form of national health insurance, under President Harry Truman. But this time it was the American Medical Association that was threatened, and they assessed their members a special war tax to wage a $1.5 million anti-insurance campaign, which was at that time the most expensive lobbying effort in the history of the United States. One of their brochures read, "Would socialized medicine lead to socialization of other phases of life? Lenin thought so. He declared socialized medicine is the keystone to the arch of the socialist state." Advertisements in national magazines showed drawings of a mother with her baby in a physician's office as a menacing jackbooted soldier, with a bayonet, kicked the door down. Tainted again as a precursor to an inevitable communist takeover, Truman's plan for national health insurance died in a congressional subcommittee.

Who opposes H.R. 676 today? Once again, it is the powerful insurance industry. H.R. 676 proposes to finance its plan, in part, with savings from the 30 to 40 cents on each insurance premium dollar that private insurance companies charge for overhead, marketing, and advertising costs.

This is why there is no political will, despite a large majority of Americans favoring the guarantee of health care for everyone. There is huge lobbying money arrayed against H.R. 676, and too few politicians have the courage to stand up for it, lest they be labeled socialist or communist. Despite this lingering fear, however, 90 representatives have signed on to be cosponsors of this bill.

While I was at UUA General Assembly, in Fort Lauderdale, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which represents more than 1,000 cities with populations over 30,000, met in Miami and unanimously adopted a resolution supporting H.R. 676. Also endorsing it are 34 state AFL-CIO federations, 110 central labor councils, and more than 445 union organizations.

So today, if you don't have time to take a birthday cake to your senator's or representative's office, send an electronic birthday card and tell her or him to celebrate Medicare's 43rd birthday by supporting H.R. 676. We can have national health insurance. The American people want it. It will do more for the poor, more quickly, than any single poverty alleviation program. H.R. 676 is profoundly about economic justice.

For many of us the culpability of China in the genocide in Darfur has never been a question. We know that, through its purchase of Sudanese oil, China is responsible for providing 70 percent of Sudan's GDP. Despite the pressure put on China by the international community, it has used its prerogative as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council to provide cover for the Sudanese government's inaction and recalcitrance. All along, the Chinese government has claimed that the sovereignty of a nation state takes precedence over accusations of human-rights violations.

Although it is clear to the average person that China's support and protection is linked to the conflict in Darfur, China has been able to hide behind a veil of politics, diplomacy, and denial.

No more. Evidence by way of a July 13 article published by the BBC came to light last week, revealing that China had provided weapons -- actual material weapons -- to the government of Sudan since the 2005 arms embargo. China responded that the evidence the BBC uncovered did not amount to proof that it had violated the embargo, still it did not deny having provided weapons.

Why would China violate the embargo? The country is busy preparing for "One World, One Dream," its Olympian entrance onto the world stage.

One world, one dream. What does that mean to the people who were attacked in February by two Chinese Fantan fighter jets flying missions out of Nyala airport in south Darfur? The BBC confirmed that these planes unleashed two bombs.

One world: Kaltam, a mother of seven, watched her 5-year-old daughter die in the attack, dismembered from the chest up. Since the bombing, another survivor, Kaltam's 13-year-old daughter, Hawa, rarely speaks.

I wonder what she is dreaming of...