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