As a new staff member attending GA with UUSC for the first time, I have had the privilege of interviewing our workshop presenters each day. After Frances Moore Lappé’s presentation, I enjoyed the opportunity to sit down with her to discuss social justice issues and hear her advice for those who want to get involved in effecting change.

Lappe’s parents taught her early that an engaged life was the good life and the issues of the day that faced the world were also the issues discussed at the family dinner table. She remarked, though, that the Vietnam War was a "wake-up call" for her and social justice has been her life's work ever since.

When I asked what advice or words of encouragement she had for UUSC's hard-working activists, she replied that “what the world needs now precisely is to raise our voices.” By speaking up, she said, we face our fear of rejection and we risk feelings of humiliation, but these emotions that rise up inside are signals to us that we are in new territory, and are doing the right and just thing.

GA attendees lined up to speak with Lappe as she signed copies of Democracy’s Edge at UUSC’s booth. She will be taking pre-orders for her next book, Getting a Grip, throughout summer by contacting info@smallplanetinstitute.org before its public release on October 5.

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.”

The trial of militia leader Ali Kushayb, also wanted by the International Criminal Court to face charges of war crimes, was delayed by Sudanese authorities. Sudan maintains that the ICC has no jurisdiction to try its citizens for crimes in Darfur, as “President Omar Hassan al-Bashir swears no Sudanese national will be tried outside the country.”

A Reuters report explains: “Sudan has signed but not ratified the treaty which formed the ICC. The ICC cannot indict nationals who have been tried in fair and free trials in their own countries.”

Meanwhile, the violence continues. News is now surfacing in the Chicago Tribune that two African peacekeepers were killed as staff at a peacekeeping office were threatened with violence.

U.S. special envoy to Sudan Andrew Natsios has said Sudan's government is “paralyzing the Darfur humanitarian operation with bureaucratic hurdles which could cause massive loss of life” and that “the most immediate worry was the restrictions and threats facing aid workers in Darfur, where the world's largest humanitarian effort is under way.”

One of the goals of the Drumbeat for Darfur campaign is to hold accountable perpetrators of genocide.

Why is it that there are some who deny the Holocaust? Why does Bill Clinton consider his inaction on the Rwandan genocide his "greatest regret as president"? And now, after more than 300,000 people have been slaughtered and millions displaced, why is the U.S. public just now awakening to the Drumbeat for Darfur? Perhaps it is that until we personalize these unspeakable tragedies, we are unable to act. But when we finally do, we are compelled to act.

By looking back, we can find the strength and courage to move forward. At the time of the genocide in Rwanda, artist Alfredo Jaar used his voice to call attention to what was happening when no one seemed to be paying much notice.

David Levi Strauss, author of the book Between the Eyes, writes:

One day, Jaar came upon an inoperative post office and bought up the last of their postcards. The cards, which had been produced at some point by the Rwandan Office of Tourism, all had the same slogan emblazoned across the top: "Rwanda -- Discover 1,000 marvels in the land of 1,000 hills." On the reverse, they carried tourist pictures of the wildlife in Akagera National Park -- impalas, zebras, eagles, and lions -- and beautiful mountain vistas of Kibuye and Gisenyi or the serene skies over Lake Kivu. . . . Jaar began to collect the names of the survivors he met in Kigali and write them on the postcards. Then he addressed the postcards to his friends and colleagues in other parts of the world. Twenty five to 30 people received over 200 postcards. Since there was no postal service left in Rwanda, he mailed the cards from Uganda on his way out.

"Jerone Uwanahoro is still alive!"

"Canisius Nzayisenga is still alive!"

The names of the living called out to the world.

"Jyaniya Muhaweninawa is still alive!"

It is a hard thing to comprehend when you hear a figure like 300,000 Darfurians killed. But when you begin to view genocide on an individual level, as Alfredo Jaar did, the actions you take can have real meaning. You are working hard to save your brother, your sister, your parent -- anxiously awaiting confirmation that the conflict has stopped and that they will be among the survivors.

Names belonging to the living are now calling out for assistance. But will we respond? Join the Drumbeat today.

The Genocide Intervention Network announced the launch of a new resource to help activists push their state governments to join the Sudan divestment campaign. The toll-free hotline, 1-800-GENOCIDE, connects voters directly to their governor's office to request that their state join the six states that have already begun divestment of funds in companies that are supporting the genocide in Darfur.

GI-Net notes that "seventy percent of Sudan's oil revenues fund weapons used in the genocide," which is why divestment is growing into an effective, simple strategy that all can participate in.

The hotline also has resources that provide a way to stay connected with your elected officials in Congress and the White House to keep the pressure on the Sudan government. For more information on targeted divestment, download this one-page fact sheet.

Africa Action, in its February 1 post "The Politics of Peace in Darfur" states: "When President Bush mentioned Darfur in the State of the Union, without any plan of action or instructions to Congress in regards to stopping the genocide, he must have believed that the American public would see his call to conscience as a sufficient response. We must make it clear that awareness raising [alone] is an inadequate response to a genocide."

The current administration has spent its years in power convincing the American public that waging a "War on Terror" should be the top priority. If President Bush is truly concerned about stopping terror, he must look further than Iraq. To be sure, the situation there has devolved from bad to worse, but it is not the only spot on the globe in dire need of help and urgent action.

Africa Action continues: "The direct violence against villages and the systematic attempts to destroy the livelihoods of civilians by burning crops and killing livestock continues. Women have been at the forefront of these increasing assaults, as sexual violence becomes a primary tactic."

Why is this terror not grabbing daily headlines?

The constant pressure of the Drumbeat for Darfur will have an effect. If the president acts toward Darfur, it would have an enormous impact for change. We must hold him accountable to his promise of rooting out all those who would perpetuate terror.

The Genocide Intervention Network reports in a new survey that the awareness of the crisis in Sudan is up sharply since 2004. Americans are joining the drumbeat and they are saying that Iraq is not the only thing headed in the wrong direction.

Included in the poll data:

"Among the 1,018 adults surveyed in the poll last December, nearly two-thirds (62 percent) believe taking action to stop humanitarian crisis like genocide should be a high (42 percent) or the highest (19 percent) foreign policy priority for the country. Among respondents who had heard 'a lot' or 'some' about Darfur previous to the poll, support climbs further to 71 percent."

It also showed that over half (59 percent) of Americans know "a lot" or "some" about the situation in Darfur.

As the drumbeat gets louder, it will be impossible for world leaders to ignore it. Beside spreading awareness, keep the pressure on your government representatives! They will be forced to make it a priority and take action.