Since November 3, 2004 at Passionofthepresent.org

How long are WE THE PEOPLE going to accept

being kept on the SIDELINES?

That is OUR FAMILY you are EXTERMINATING!!!

"Amongst ourselves" you say?!?!??!

WE are PART OF "amoungst ourselves!!!"

We're FAMILY.

WE ARE COMING IN.

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Hunger Strike!!! Day 12. ENOUGH RADICALS CAN RESCUE DARFUR, NOW

I AM BEGGING ALL RADICALS TO CONVERGE, NOW. Contact me at: restoredarfur@cs.com

Saul Alinsky, U. Chicago, arguably the first true "Radical" of the mid 1900's wrote that (and I synthesize):
CONSERVATIVE: A conservative is someone that does not want change AND WILL FIGHT LIKE HELL TO PREVENT IT.
LIBERAL: A liberal wants change WITH THEIR HEAD, speaks eloquently, organizes lots of events, but RARELY FIGHTS MUCH for anything.
RADICAL: A RADICAL is someone that so wants change with their HEAD & HEART SO DESPERATELY that they are the MOST FORMIDABLE FIGHTER OF ALL (Think Dr. King. Think Gandhi, think Saul Alinsky, think Stefania).

Tonight, to my amazement, I ended the Hunger Strike. Why? So that I can resume it almost immediately, with strength, if the opportunity to bring this Genocide TO AN END NOW can be developed. Although last night was miserable (my stomach was VERY unhappy; 2 hours sleep), indications are I could have gone the 30-40 days with relative ease. I HOPE to have the opportunity to verify this VERY SOON!!!!

To my amazement (having all last night to think) I FOR THE FIRST TIME, FOR THE FIRST TIME!... I SAW WITH CLARITY HOW TO STOP THE GENOCIDE. NOW I MUST TRY TO BRING THIS, OR ITS EQUIVALENT, TO REALITY.

There is a FATAL assumption among the Genocide Activists: CREATING AWARENESS AND CONCERN AMONG AMERICANS IS NOT THE ANSWER!!!!!!!!!!!

MAKING DARFUR GENOCIDE AN EMERGENCY, !!!!EMERGENCY!!!! FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, AND THE PEOPLE OF NATO IS THE ANSWER!!!!!

HOW TO STOP THE GENOCIDE:

1. IF IT WERE AN EMERGENCY, AN EEMMEERRGGEENNCCYY TO THE UNITED STATES PEOPLE TO BRING THIS GENOCIDE TO AN IMMEDIATE CLOSE… WE COULD DO SO… EASILY…EEAASSIILLYY!!, IMMEDIATELY!!!! Khartoum is a petty government of bullies, not a principle among them to fight for, raping and plundering the country. If as Eric Reeves proposes (sudanreeves.org) we exerted our influence we could have a NATO PEACE KEEPING FORCE on the ground, SUPPORTING THE AU immediately. Khartoum scurries away into their rat-holes, begging for mercy, pleading for terms that would have NATO go away. Duh.

2. WE COULD CREATE THE EMERGENCY IF 1000'S OF OUR CROWN JEWELS, !!!OUR STUDENTS!!!, YES, OUR STUDENTS, IN THE US AND OTHER NATO COUNTRIES WERE ON HUNGER STRIKE, RESOLVED TO STAY ON STRIKE UNTIL NATO WAS ON THE GROUND… NATO ON THE GROUND WOULD HAPPEN, FAST.

3. IF IT WERE AN EMERGENCY AMONG THE 1000'S OF STUDENTS, THE POTENTIAL RADICALS I ENVISION, THEY WOULD IMMEDIATELY UNDERTAKE THIS STRIKE.

4. WE COULD CREATE THE EMERGENCY AMONG THE POTENTIAL STUDENT RADICALS WITH 10-50 PEOPLE, MOSTLY WELL-PLACED (respected, visible, known, elite campuses) STUDENTS, AND OTHERS (I'M IN!!!!!!) ON HUNGER STRIKE UNTIL THE 1000'S JOINED, OR ELSE. NO HOLDS BARRED.

"But Jay, THERE ARE OTHER WAYS TO END THIS IMMEDIATELY!," you say. I'm all ears!!!!! Otherwise, let’s get on with this, OR face that you have chosen, CHOSEN!!!, the extermination of 400,000 more of our Darfur Family in the next 9 months.

Agape, Jay

Ps: CONTACT ME. Restoredarfur@cs.com LET'S DO IT.
Pps: You lead, I'll follow. I'll carry the waste like Stefania. I'll do the typing. I don't care. Let's Rescue and Restore our Darfur Family. IT IS TIME TO PUT UP, OR SHUT UP.

Hunger Strike!!! Day 11B. “FAMILY EMERGENCY RESPONSE”

Dear friends, if ever I have had something to contribute, this is it. Jay

[From Eva Fogelman's, Conscience & Courage, Rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust. THIS BOOK IS A MUST READ. Please get it and read it; before it is too late.]

"THIRTEEN JEWISH PEOPLE HAD BEEN SAVED ONCE AGAIN BY STEFANIA'S INNER VOICE." Gandhi said, "I will admit but one tyrant in my life, the still, small voice within." Let it be. The control that will Rescue and Restore Darfur is NOT in the White House, NOT in the UN, NOT in the press. It is within us. Gandhi called it, "Soul Force." I am not a mystic. I am a realist. And my family, our family, is being exterminated.

Time's up folks. Eric Reeves recent analysis (sudanreeves.org) tells me that within the next 9 months, 9 MONTHS!!!, another 400,000 EXTERMINATIONS will take place in the form of FORCED DISEASE, STARVATION, and DEHYDRATION. Really? Pulitzer Prize winning Samantha Power's 100 year genocide analysis concludes that: IT IS OUR BIAS TOWARD DISBELIEF, OUR CHOICE TO DISBELIEVE, THAT IS THE MAJOR REASON GENOCIDE CONTINUES, AGAIN AND AGAIN. Let's not disbelieve, again.

THE ONLY THING THAT CAN SAVE OUR DARFUR FAMILY IS A MIRACLE, AND THAT MIRACLE IS WHAT I CALL THE "FAMILY EMERGENCY RESPONSE." The only group healthy enough in this country to lead/trigger the family emergency response is our youth. Stefania found within herself the "FAMILY EMERGENCY RESPONSE." It is COURAGEOUS. IT IS FORCEFUL. IT IS INNOVATIVE. IT DRAWS ON ALL AVAILABLE INTELLIGENCE/SKILLS/KNOWLEDGE AND RESOURCES. IT, IT ALONE, WORKS MIRACLES.

WE NEED A MIRACLE. This country has NEVER stopped, or significantly slowed Genocide. EVER. It probably never will. Is that good enough? NOT ON MY WATCH.

At the time we come to the quote below, for about 16 months 17 year old Stefania and her 7 year old sister Helena have, starting with just 1, found and provided housing that so far has saved the life of 13 Jews in Poland during the height of Nazi power and control. They have fed, clothed, cleaned, carried waste, protected, hidden, for all that time. Stefania had also discouraged a young suitor she dearly loved for fear a relationship would endanger her 13 Jews.

"In the concluding months of the war, as the Russians advanced from the east inflicting heavy casualties on the German side, an empty building across the street from Sefania's cottage (where they all 15 lived) was converted into a field hospital. The formerly deserted street was suddenly swarming with Nazi soldiers, ambulances, wounded, doctors and nurses. Many of the hospital personnel lived on the grounds - which had been a college campus - and Stefania realized that her situation was now much more precarious.

"One afternoon, two SS soldiers knocked on her door. "You have been ordered to vacate the premises within two hours." They read to her from an official-looking sheet of paper. "This residence has been commandeered by the Third Reich. The penalty for noncompliance is death."

"Two hours! How will I find a place for my sister and me (and 13 hidden Jews) in just two hours?" she cried, but they merely repeated the orders and left.

"For the next hour and a half Stefania ran through every street in town - but she could find nothing that would shelter all fifteen of them. After three years of looting and deprivation, the buildings were in worse shape than ever. There were doorways but no doors; houses without ceilings; rooms filled with the rubble of loose masonry and roofing material.

[In a 1990's interview Stefania recalls] "Just ruins, nothing more. Almost two hours had gone already. So I came home. I started to cry. I said, "How can I leave thirteen people to certain death? I can run out, but these people will be dead. … There was nothing available, nothing. Only twenty minutes left. I came home. I said nothing. All my thirteen came down to me, with the three children. The pressed against me, so tightly, they looked at me. My decision. Will I leave? My decision. Will I leave them or not?

"All thirteen of them said to me, "Run away. You don't have to die with us. We have to, but you don't have to die with us. You cannot help us anymore. Save your life and your little sister and run away, because you still have 10 minutes." Joseph pushed me. They said, "Run away. Don't die with us. You cannot help us anymore. What you could do you did, but not now. Save your life and Helena. Go. Run away."

"And all these people watched me, the children pressed so close I could hear their breathing, my sister too. So I really, I didn't know what to do. I said to them, "Well, first of all, come on. We will pray. We will ask God." You see, I had a picture which I bought as a little girl, of Jesus and his mother, and it always hung on my wall. And I said, "Come on - we will pray. We will ask God."

"First I knelt, then my sister and all the thirteen after, behind me. And I prayed, and I turned to look. All thirteen were in deep, deep prayer. And I asked God not to let us be killed. Help, somehow. I cannot leave this apartment. I cannot leave thirteen people for certain death. I will be alive if I go, but thirteen lives will be finished - children too, and young people. I asked God, "Help, somehow."

"And again I heard a voice, a woman's voice. It was so beautiful, so nice, so quiet. She said to me, "Don't worry. Everything will be all right. You will not leave your apartment. You will stay here, and they will take only one room. Everything will be all right. I am with you." And she told me, "Be quiet. I'll tell you what to do." She said, "Send your people to the bunker. Open the door. Open the windows. Clean your apartment and sing."

"I was like hypnotized. My head was bent down, and I was listening, I was listening and the voice said again, "Everything will be all right." Then it disappeared. I listened a few minutes more, but nothing more came.

"So I got up and said to my people, "Go the attic," exactly like the lady told me. I said, "I will not move from my apartment. I will stay here, so go to the attic and be quiet, very quiet."

"And you see, I was completely different. My people looked at me, all my thirteen, and they thought something was wrong with my mind. But I said, "Okay now, go out, go to the bunker. Everything will be all right if you stay quiet over there."

"And I opened the window and the doors, and I cleaned. I started to sing. I don't know how I became so happy. And all the neighbors came, and they said, "Miss Podgorska, what happened? Why haven't you moved? The Gestapo, the SS will come. They will kill you. This is war, this is the military. They have no mercy for the enemy - and they are our enemy. Go out. We don't want to see you killed. You're too nice, too young to be dead."

"I said, "I have no place to go." They said, "Don't you have a friend? Go stay with her." I said, "No, I will not leave my apartment." And they also thought something was wrong with me.

"The janitor's husband came, and he said, "Miss Padgorska, I will throw you out. Go out, I don't want to see you be killed - I have no place to bury you." And he was serious. … I said, "No, I am sorry, I will not move from my apartment." And he said, "Something is wrong with you," but he left.

"I kept singing and cleaning my apartment, and exactly ten minutes past the two hours an SS man came. He was so friendly. He was laughing to me from a few yards away. He came closer to the window and he said - he spoke a little Polish, very broken but he spoke - and he said it was good that I hadn't moved from my apartment because they would take only one room. This last room, they would take. He said, "Very well, you can stay."

"THIRTEEN JEWISH PEOPLE HAD BEEN SAVED ONCE AGAIN BY STEFANIA'S INNER VOICE."

"…Thirteen people, and their children and grandchildren, are alive today because a teenager ignored the fact that she would be killed for harboring Jews; thirteen men, women and children are alive today because a teenager believed in miracles."

400,000 in our Darfur family need a miracle. Now. If our youth don't give it to them, if our youth don't lead this country, if our youth don't show us how to radically exercise our humanity, the miracle isn't going to happen.

Jay
ps: If you find this piece worthy PLEASE email it far and wide. It also is on the blog rescuerestoredarfur.blogspot.com

Hunger Strike!!! Day 11A: STAND CONF., etc

I'm trying to spend most of my time demonstrating (commitment/urgency) so there is not much energy left to write. But there are important things to communicate so here goes:

GEORGETOWN U: Saturday and Sunday thru mid afternoon (Days 9 & 10) were spent at the STAND (Students Taking Action Now: Darfur) conference at Georgetown U. It was awesome. Truly. Fatally flawed, but truly awesome and hopeful. The intelligence, schooling, high level of involvement by all (sessions were packed at 9am Sat. and Sun. 9AM!!!!!). organization, knowledge, preparation.... Utterly astonishing.

The fatally flawed part. Well, I've written about the broader subject. There is an old expression that loosely applies here - success is 10% preparation and 90% perspiration. The Heavenly news is that these folks have: fine character, extreme intelligence, incredible schooling and skills, connections, the Internet, financial resources.... HOWEVER, THIS ALSO IS THE BAD NEWS. Why? Because, so far, although I saw glimerings of awakening on Sunday, they DELUDE THEMSELVES THAT THIS WILL BE NEARLY ENOUGH!!!! IT WILL NOT!!!!! HEAD WILL NOT SAVE DARFUR. HEART/HUMANITY WILL RESCUE AND RESTORE DARFUR. Am I criticizing, putting down individuals? No. I am awed by the individuals. BUT THERE IS A BLIND SPOT. AND UNLESS THAT BLINDSPOT IS ELIMINATED IMMEDIATELY, SO WILL BE OUR FAMILY IN DARFUR. These 250 young, humane, well intended leaders at Georgetown are our greatest hope by far. If they fail, we're out of time, we're out of hope. More specifics on what is needed in previous, and in the next posts. (FAMILY EMERGENCY RESPONSE; WE ARE THE EVIDNECE/MESSAGE/DEMONSTRATION OF THE DARFUR DISASTER (how powerful are we as the evidence/message/demonstration?)).

DUPONT CIRCLE: Sunday afternoon and evening till 9pm was awesome. A VERY IMPORTANT ACTION OPPORTUNITY is to get 400,000 signatures by September 7th!!! (PLEASE take your friends to africaaction.org NOW!!!!). About 8 of us from the conference went and collected between 400 and 600 signatures!!!!

Yes, collecting signatures on a petition is just a drop in the bucket, HOWEVER, in this case, it is ONE of the things we can do! A 1000 mile trip begins with 1 step.

Agape, Jay

Hunger Strike!!! Day 7: Health. Headway.

Deomonstrating at the Holocaust Museum.

Health? No problems. Truly. Am I depleting? Yes. Am I hungry? Yes. Any signs of damage? NONE. I am intending to do NO DAMAGE!!! I'll stop when I sense any signs. Hydrating? YES. Vitamin, potassium, salt every day.

Headway? There have been many wellwishers on the street. One dear lady cried as I told her of what is happening. Many students at the STAND CONFERENCE have been coming by to talk. Quite a few emails are coming in, offering encouragement, asking how they can help. One emailer wants to join the Strike!!!

A highlight? The youth leader conference of 250 students in STAND from around the country was at the Holocaust museum today. It is jointly sponsored by the Holocaust Museum, Rebock and mTV. About 5pm this guy comes out. Turns out he is the guy doing the mTV shoot. He says, "I've just interviewed 20 of the students, and 10 of them talked about what you are doing. Can we do an interview?" We did, for about 20 minutes. At the end he says, "These folks HAVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!"

Yes, I seem to be making some tiny headway. :-)

Hunger Strike!!! Day 6. Pioneers must pay the price.

Demonstrating in front of Holocaust Museum.

THERE WILL BE NO RESCUE AND RESTORATION OF DARFUR UNTIL SOME, UNTIL ENOUGH, EARLY PIONEERS (THOSE WHO GO FIRST) AMONG WE THE PEOPLE PAY A BIG PRICE FOR IT. THEN, others more timid, with less vision may follow. It will NOT happen any other way. It never has; and it never will.

The following is pretty longwinded, but I hope you stay with it. It is REALLY IMPORTANT to our family in Darfur. It has been really important for me to come to clarity on this.

As I sit outside the Holocaust Museum with my posters I've been reading Eva Fogelman's Conscience & Courage. This is her exhaustive research findings regarding the relatively few "Rescuers" during the Nazi Holocaust. Reading it helps me understand myself, and what I am doing here in DC on Hunger Strike!!! a little better

Yesterday I met with some college interns here in DC for the summer. They are involved with the organization of potential promise - STAND (Students Taking Action: Darfur). We had met and spoken before at the July Hunger Strike. At that time they asked me to speak at a Church, which I did on the last day of the July Strike. It is evident that our encounter in July had an impact on these promising young leaders, these alive souls. Our reason for meeting was to brainstorm how to stop the Genocide, how to approach the larger world and increase the mobilization.

They voiced many heartfelt, honest, reasonable concerns:
" What is the "Ask?" They work for organizations that exist by "Asking," and secure aid for Darfur by "Asking".
" What do I tell someone that says, What about Niger and its famine?
" How do we articulate the need?
" Why is there so little REAL urgency even among activists (they didn't state this exactly, but it was implied.)
" Isn't this "post genocide" in Darfur, and if so, isn't the need much less urgent than it was? Isn't it infinitely more difficult now to mobilize people to take action?
" What strategies and tactics do we take?
" Is it enough for us just to stop the Genocide?
" How do we unify the efforts of the activists?

I hope I only frustrated them a little and did not lose their relationship entirely with how I responded. It was not my intention to do either and I may not have, and I pray I did not. But these are desperate times for our Darfur family and there is no time to kill. We must relentlessly pursue the truth, and those who find that doing so is not their highest priority, I/we must be willing to lose them from dialog for now.

In our meeting I was neither very articulate, concise or clear in my own mind. But I was certain that the questions they shared, questions held broadly I am sure throughout the activist community, were based on a fatally flawed understanding of the situation here in the U.S. faced by those of us that want to Rescue and Restore Darfur. I remain certain that this is the case.

I think I can boil what I see down to this. In the early 60's, what was the "Ask" to implement Civil Rights? THERE WAS NO ASK because:
1. There was no perceived need AMONG THOSE WITH POWER, THE MASSES, WE THE PEOPLE;
2. There was not SALABLE product. WHAT??!??!?!?!?? No salable product???? With all the cruelty, inhumanity and injustice???? YES, there was a desperate situation, BUT IT TOOK AN ENORMOUS STRUGGLE, REQUIRING ENORMOUS SACRIFICE TO TURN IT INTO A VISIBLE, SALABLE PRODUCT. Only THEN was it relevant to think in terms of "what is the Ask."

What is the "Ask" for Darfur? That is the wrong question AT THIS TIME because:
1. There is no perceived need THAT IS REMOTELY STRONG ENOUGH. And from Samantha Power's book, "The Problem from Hell", I SEE THAT GENOCIDE HAS NEVER BECOME A PERCEIVED NEED THAT IS REMOTELY STRONG ENOUGH TO MOBILIZE THIS COUNTRY!!!!!! Not Nazi Germany, not the Armenians, not the Kurds in Iraq, not Bosnia, not Rwanda….!!!!! IT HAS NEVER HAPPENED. WE MUST INVENT/CAUSE THE FIRST TIME!!!!!!!
2. THERE IS NO SALABLE PRODUCT, yet, and we are NOT MOVING yet IN THE DIRECTION OF CREATING ONE.

From Conscience and Courage I can see more clearly that in 1930's and early 1940's Germany and Europe there was a DESPERATE NEED, but NOT a DESPERATE PERCEIVED NEED, not among potential rescuers, NOT AMONG POTENTIAL VICTIMS!!!! How did the rescuing come about? Well, two things:
A. Rescuers happened only when CERTAIN, PSYCHOLOGICALLY PREDISPOSED, ENORMOUSLY COMPASSIONATE OR PRINCIPLED PEOPLE, THE VAST MINORITY, came in close enough contact / experience with the emergency that they became mobilized.
B. When these predisposed people felt competent to make a difference, maybe.

Well, in the Holocaust there never was mass rescuing! But in the Civil Rights Movement THERE WAS! How did this come about? Well, for the sake of this piece, IT BECAME A STRONG ENOUGH NEED WHEN ENOUGH OTHERS HAD PAID AN ENORMOUS PRICE FOR IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Marches, suffering public scorn, white students getting lynched, whites getting "divorced" by their families, people marching, civil disobedience, jail, police dogs, fire hosings…. Extreme stuff that constituted an EXTREME PRICE PAID BY THE FEW! ONLY WHEN THE MASSES SAW THE FEW PAYING SUCH AN EXTREME PRICE COULD THESE PEOPLE OF LESSER VISION, IMAGINATION AND COMPASSION "SEE" AND FEEL THE ENORMOUS NEED… AND THEN RESPOND! AND THEY FINALLY DID!!!!!!! IN LARGE NUMBERS!!!!!!

In any market, in every market for new products including the product - THE NEED TO RESCUE AND RESTORE DARFUR - IT IS ALWAYS A FEW "PIONEERS" that start the market. IF THESE PIONEERS ARE SECURED FAST ENOUGH, IN GREAT ENOUGH NUMBERS (.000001% of the eventual market), AND IF THEY ARE CONSUMED WITH ENOUGH PASSION, THEY ARE THE TINDER THAT IS USED TO IGNITE THE TWIGS (the "Early Adapters," 5% of the ultimate market), and if this happens in the right way, the twigs are of sufficient heat, PASSION, to ignite the EARLY MAJORITY!!!!!

THESE STEPS CANNOT BE BYPASSED. NEVER. EVERY OTHER APPROACH IS CERTAIN TO FAIL!!!!! CCEERRTTAAIINN TTOO FFAAIILL!!! Some of us are going to have to be the TINDER. We are going to have to burn with an intense heat. WE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO PAY A HUGE PRICE. MARCHES, HUNGER STRIKES, FAMILY PROBLEMS, CAREER PROBLEMS, UNIVERSITY PROBLEMS, HEALTH PROBLEMS…..

Everything else, anything less, will KILL what little time is left to Rescue and Restore Darfur.

Hunger Strike!!! Day 4. We MUST be Unreasonable.

Driving to DC and touring the Holocaust Museum.

[[[George Bernard Shaw once wrote, "Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." See full quite from Samantha Power's Pulitzer Prize winning book below.]]]

On the drive from Philadelphia today to DC, the traffic on Rt50 coming into DC was so slow that I had lots of time to consider options regarding the Hunger Strike!!! I am not called to do permanent damage to myself on this Strike!!! I am called to get back to work when I am done so I can begin the long and joyful effort to reprovision for future battles. The question I wrestled with is, should I go on a modified strike and have some nutrition every 4 days or so. There are many restaurants along Route 50 so I had lots of opportunities. I wrestled for probably an hour, and then it came clear to me. Some situations are so extreme that they require the most extreme price be paid, the most extreme measures in response. NOTHING LESS HAS ANY VALUE OR HOPE. The answer that came to me? No compromise. No nutrition (beyond the vitamin, potassium, salt and water I take daily). A 30-40 day Strike!!! if I am able. The posters I carry are, "NEVER AGAIN WHATEVER THE PRICE. GENOCIDE IN DARFUR," and "HUNGER STRIKE!!!! RESCUE RESTORE DARFUR." Tomorrow, day 5, I hope to be in front of the Holocaust museum. Other days will include the White House (OUR house) and the Washington Post (OUR eyes and ears).

I toured the Holocaust Museum for the first time today. I was so discouraged, so disheartened by the experience that I seriously considered ending the Strike!!! My God, if people that "Remember" have focused so little on HOW TO MAKE NEVER AGAIN A REALITY, how is anyone else going to focus on that?!?!?!?!!? And as for Darfur, the exhibit is such a weak token to the horror in Darfur, so dated, so benign (mostly pictures of smiling, pretty children, and nicely clothed women), that it speaks of simply using Darfur as a way of legitimizing the focus on the Holocaust. I fear that the museum is NOT about Never Again Genocide on Earth, but about Never Again FORGET what happened to JEWS. It seems to be simply a Museum to me, a place about the PAST, with little to do with the future. Not Never again, but rather, Again and Again. I did NOT tour the permanent exhibit and I plan to do so. Maybe that will alter my view. Overall, I am deeply grateful for the museum. The world, and Darfur, are much better off for it. But, it must become more. Fast.

But there was a little book store on the third floor that I entered before leaving and there on the shelves were 2 books that I've since scanned. WOW. My courage and commitment are restored!!!! Conscience & Courage, Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust by Eva Fogelman; and the Pulitzer Prize winning "A Problem from Hell," America and the Age of Genocide" by Samantha Power of Harvard. Although these folks are far more researched and scholarly than I, they have reached the same conclusions that have me on Hunger Strike!!! in DC! This was encouraging, and hopeful for me.

Among the findings I found hopeful and helpful from Fogelman a psychologist that has conducted extensive Doctoral study of Rescuers, is that Rescuing is a developed trait, deep within the core of an individual. We can exercise this capacity for Rescuing (this capacity for HUMANITY) within ourselves! We MUST exercise it or it atrophies. And in doing so, we exercise it in others. I REMAIN CONVINCED THAT THE ONLY HOPE FOR DARFUR, THE ONLY HOPE FOR A U.S. WORTH EXISTING, IS FOR A FEW OF US TO EXERCISE OUR HUMANITY WITH GREAT BOLDNESS AND VIGOR. In doing so we have the chance, the only chance, of stimulating, activating, exercising the Humanity in our fellow human beings. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY. Let's get on with it.

Samantha Power has done a Prize winning, exhaustive research on the Genocides of this century, and the causes of US inaction, time, after time, after time. I'm sure I'll share more later, but 2 things for now:
1. A central idea, or finding is, THE SYSTEM IN THE US IS WORKING... THAT IS WHY WE ALLOW GENOCIDE! No, she does NOT assert that there is a DESIRE for genocide, simply that our SYSTEM of values places TOO HIGH A PRICE on stopping genocide. My takeaway? IF WE ARE TO STOP GENOCIDE WE MUST SHAKEUP AND CHANGE THE SYSTEM, AND THE SYSTEM IS US.
2. Power's book ended with a paragraph I just had to have: "George Bernard Shaw once wrote, "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." After a century of doing so little to prevent, suppress, and punish genocide, Americans must join and thereby legitimate the ranks of the unreasonable."

OH PLEASE, LET'S HURRY IN BECOMING UNREASONABLE PEOPLE. 300-500 Exterminations per day in Darfur hang in the balance.

Agape, Jay

The only hope

The only hope is our Humanity. Darfur genocide happens due to InHumanity, there and here.

We must generate, we must unleash humanity. The only hope is to exercise our humanity, individually, that it will grow, and not atrophy. And, in exercising our humanity, we often exercise the humanity of others, despite themselves.

There is no other way. There is no other core strategy. There never has been, and never will be.

Never Again (what???)

NEVER AGAIN A BYSTANDER IN THE FACE OF GENOCIDE
NEVER AGAIN... WHATEVER THE PRICE

Ever since I was a selfish, spoiled little boy in Short Hills, NJ even I have known that the world should have stopped when the Holocaust was happening in Germany; EVERYTHING should have gone on hold that was not directed at bringing the Extermination of Humans to a halt! (Stupidly simplistic? Thank you.)

Ever since I knew I might join the July hunger strike at the White House I've been trying to complete the phrase, NEVER AGAIN.... "Never Again..." suggests to me the beginnings of a deep, human, profound, essential truth. I've been powerfully drawn to understanding what the whole phrase means, in the face of Genocide. My interest is not historical; I'm not overly interested in who coined the phrase or why. My interest is in what it means to we humans; what it means to be human in the face of GENOCIDE. I believe the phrase offers us a key, if we complete the phrase correctly. A path to become, to regain what it means to be... human.

Well, today I came close enough, for myself, at least.

NEVER AGAIN... NEVER AGAIN A BYSTANDER, IN THE FACE OF GENOCIDE.
NEVER AGAIN... WHATEVER THE PRICE

Yes, this is close enough for me. Never again on the sidelines. Never again an onlooker. A fighter of genocide. This is what I must be. I must give everything I have to give, if I am to be a human being in the face of this man-made extermination of people, of our brothers, sisters... of our family.

Tonight I resume the Hunger Strike begun in July. Until August 8th I expect to remain at work with the deeply wonderful family I work with in the Philadelphia area. August 9th, I plan to tour the Holocaust Museum in DC for the first time. Beginning the 10th, for a total of 30 days or so I intend to be on Hunger Strike at some combination of the Holocaust Museum, White House, and Washington Post.

Why? I can't think of any more promising, forceful, urgent way to act on my horror, my agony, my overwhelming desire to Rescue and Restore Darfur.

What am I doing? I don't really know. If I were a person of violence I would be taking a person hostage of the highest U.S. "importance" to demand U.S. action. Being a person of strict nonviolence, I suppose I am trying to take some hearts hostage. Yes, I guess that is what this is partly about. Whose hearts? A few hearts among we the people, hearts that might then take others hostage....

My greatest hope? THE GREATEST HOPE? Our students in high school and college. Most of us oldsters have sold so much of our humanity for things, that we are of little hope, of little help, initially. We oldster's have little left of the humanity to give that it will take to Rescue and Restore Darfur. We are too skilled at imprisoning our hearts behind reason, reality, "responsibility" and religion. Our only hope is that the students, the youth, are not yet as dead, and sKilled, as we are. Students saved us in the Civil Rights Movement. They saved us in South Africa. Will they save us, U.S., and Darfur? Let us pray.

I'm terrified of my journey ahead, personally. This is a good sign! This is a sign that I may be getting off of the sidelines, into the line of fire, onto the field battle for Darfur! Thus far I am alone in this Hunger Strike campaign; no support, no participants, no promoters, no lodging (besides my car on the streets of DC). Will this change? Our Father knows.

I'm terrified. I'm overjoyed. I'm so sad - at the Slaughter in Darfur... at our Death in the United States of America. Let us pray, that life begins.

Agape,

Jay