I am sending this letter to both of my senators and all eight of my representatives. Feel free to use my letter for your own purposes, or make your own. Both of my senators are Jewish; so I am assuming the word genocide means somehting to them. I am also sending it to my very own President of the United States.
To: The Honorable Russ Feingold
506 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-4904Â
Dear Senator Feingold,Â
This letter is written to plead that you and other United States representatives pay attention to what is happening in Darfur, Sudan. I, a voting citizen in a swing state, implore you to take some action, whatever action you can, to prevent the genocide occurring as we speak. How many more hundreds of thousands must be killed before we act? President Bush himself has described the situation as genocide. I am horrified, outraged, and flabbergasted that our country has remained neutral in action on this heinous situation. “You can look at it this way: back in 1944, the Germans didn’t want anybody coming in and seeing their death camps. Today in Sudan, the government doesn’t want anybody coming in and seeing what amount to death villages.†*Â
Please let us use our resources where we can make a true moral stand against murder and injustice. Can we not send more aid to these areas? Can we not more fiercely condemn these behaviors? Kofi Annan and Bill Clinton both recognize Rwanda as their crowning failure. Will we stand by and do nothing, again? Is it true that we have resisted sending a U.N. Peacekeeping force because we have received information on Osama Bin Laden from leaders in Sudan? “It’s been a very good deal for the government of Sudan to give little tidbits of information about suspects around the world in order to blunt United States outrage over what’s happening in Darfur,” Prendergast says. *Â
First, I challenge you as a respectable acting member of the government of the United States to respond to me with a letter entailing actions you are taking to prevent the slaughter taking place in Sudan and answer my questions. Are we turning our backs on Africa and Sudan because we have no financial interests there? Secondly, I challenge you to send me information on how I can make a tangible difference.Â
Ned Gannon
2028 8th StreetÂ
Eau Claire, WI 54703
* http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/20/60minutes/main2111909_page2.shtml
Dear Ned–
This is a well written and admirable letter. I’m curious if you’ve received any response to this. Do post here and let us know.
I have put in a few letters and emails and even a call or two in to my senators’ offices. I usually get “counted” in some way, and then I get a form response either by mail or by email, or sometimes both. Admittedly, I’m probably among the “push-button” liberals who send such correspondence through Move On and DATA and other such organizations.
While I’m generally pleased about the outcome of the recent elections, Ned’s postings here remind me how much Darfur and other such atrocities have been very absent from the election and the debates around the election. It seemed entirely about Iraq. Understanable, in many ways, but from a humanitarian standpoint, shouldn’t Darfur be in that conversation?
I’m hopeful, with new leadership of both houses of Congress, that change will be possible in terms of Iraq and in terms of U.S. global support. And also in terms of fairness within our own country, social programs, and education. We’ll see which direction the new winds blow come January, when the Democratic leadership takes over. But I see this as a shift in the right direction.
Thanks, Ned.
–Shotts
HMPAC (Hollow Men Political Action Committee) update: There’s an iTunes video about Darfur you can download for free. Open up iTunes, click on TV Shows in the iTunes Store and then it’s highlighted under the main window (center, bottom row) with a yellow “FREE” marker in the corner. Thought you’d all like to know.
Sorry Ned, I think it’s fairly large for a dial-up connection.