Fasting to where the Darfuries are...

... the brink of death. [[[No longer my current plan. Not quite that far. I am to regain full health to fight again.]]] I'm beginning to see that this is where I am called. I hope to begin August 10th back in DC.

I've known since the brief July Hunger Strike at Lafayette Park that I was being powerfully called back. I follow such calls in my life. I've never regretted doing so. I've always been deeply grateful when I have done so. For much of my life such unfathomable "calls" had to do with "saving" dying organizations in business. Now the "call" has to do with Rescuing and Restoring the Darfur part of our family.

There is almost nothing I understand about the call. This is always how it is until I am weeks or months underway. By the way, I often fail :-) . (Many of us are going to have to try, and fail, until someone discovers the way.) "If at first the idea is not absurd (unfathomable, crazy, outlandish, unimaginable...) it has no hope," wrote Einstein. This is more than a cute reference. The Rescue and Restoration of Darfur will be a type of thing never before seen, if it happens. Never has one people rescued and restored another, taught Dr. King. Non-biologically related, of a different race, 10,000 miles away.... My God let's face this seeming "impossibility" while some people remain to be rescued. Such an unprecedented transformation WILL NOT COME ABOUT THROUGH THE LEFT-BRAIN, NEAT, QUANTIFIABLE, TANGIBLE TYPES OF ACTIVITIES IN WHICH WE HAVE BEEN SCHOOLED. If a fire starts, and builds, it may be fanned and spread by left-brain action, but in its very essence it will be the scary, right-brain, intuitive, passionate, inspirational, HUMANE, "FAMILY," faith stuff. Please let's face, and embrace this. If what any of us "involved" in the struggle contemplate seems rational, clear, right, sane... it is probably HOPELESS, "KILLING TIME," something our Darfur family is out of.

I want to share with you the little bits of clarity that are beginning to emerge for me. Thanks for Jim Fussell's deeply helpful piece at preventgenocide.org. regarding Fasts, because I find it well intended, constructive, stimulating... and also flawed. I reference the flaws and this is a passionate complement and deep, deep thanks to Jim. He has built steps toward our needed action, but further steps need to be added. Maybe I am being shown some. I share below.

THE IMMEDIATE TARGET IS NOT, NOT, NOT THE VISIBLE POLITICAL LEADERS. We are not far enough along for this! Let's wake up please. We need nonviolent warriors first! People risking being casualties (by definition attendant to being in battle) for the cause of Rescue and Restoration. THE IMMEDIATE TARGET MUST BE THE 1-IN-A-MILLION PERSON THAT IS SO HUMANE, THAT THEY CAN BE AMONG THE FIRST ENLISTEES IN THE BATTLE FOR DARFUR. Nothing else is possible until a handful of these, THE NOT YET SPAWNED LEADERS, are ignited.

POLITICAL OR EVEN PSYCHOLOGICAL PRESSURE ARE NOT RELEVANT OR APPROPRIATE YET. NOT EVEN MORAL PRESSURE. INFLAMMATION OF THE HUMANITY, COMPASSION, EMPATHY OF THE FEW, IS WHAT IS NEEDED FIRST.

I DON'T KNOW HOW THE HELL TO IGNITE THE HUMANITY IN ANYONE, AND I'VE YET TO FIND ANYONE THAT WILL SIT DOWN AND TALK ABOUT IT DEEPLY AND THOROUGHLY. Thank God for the words and example of Jesus, Gandhi, King, Deming.... But tonight, as these thoughts have come to me with greater clarity, I see that by personally going to where our Darfuries have been forced, TO THE BRINK OF DEATH, TO THE BRINK OF STARVATION, I WOULD BRING THAT PLACE IN TRUTH TO DC, AND MAYBE SOMEONE WITH ENOUGH HUMAN VISION INTACT in DC, in the US will "SEE" where the Darfuries are and have their Humanity mightily engaged. For most or even all of us Darfur is insuficiently real; it is too abstract, accademic, remote. We must bring the reality, not to our consciousness, but to our spirit, to our soul, THAT MAYBE we will bring it to the spirit and soul of others. Nothing else matters until this has happened. Gandhi did not liberate India using "Mind Force" but rather Soul Force/Truth Force.

I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO... BUT I'M SEEING SOME OF THE TRAIL MARKERS MORE CLEARLY :-) ! The right steps at this juncture are IN THE DIRECTION OF COURAGE, RISK, CASUALTY, DEPRIVATION, EXTREME SACRIFICE, EXTREME OTHERISHNESS... battle. In sheer physical terms (think Laws of Physics), it is a ferocious nonviolent BATTLE that will Rescue and Restore Darfur. By definition those engaged in battle face ALL that I've just listed: courage, risk, casualty.... I must be a warrior. We must raise/enlist warriors. THIS IS JOB ONE.

THIS is what "Never again" must mean. NEVER AGAIN WILL I BE A CIVILIAN, SAFE AT HOME, WHILE MY FAMILY IS SUBJECT TO GENOCIDE.

Agape,

Jay