What Happens When Everyone Goes Home?

In hopes of raising awareness about the reality of genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan, Sam writes every Monday about a key issue in an attempt to stop the atrocity. Doing so may not bring about a wave of change, but it is a small ripple that represents the tide that needs turning.

Five days ago, the Chad embassy closed its doors in Sudan after attacks in its own country believed to have been perpetrated by Janjaweed militia.

What happens when everyone goes home? What happens when the violence gets so bad and the situation so hopeless, that in order to maintain their own lives, your allies and friends pack up and flee? What happens when your bodyguards need bodyguards, when your police need police, and when your army needs an army?

Without diverting this Monday’s posting from Darfur, I’m sure the feeling is similar for millions of Iraqis and one Mr. Bush. Violence and war are ugly, but some are worth fighting, and sometimes it’s one against everyone else. Darfur is such a situation.

When the innocent get slaughtered, when the children get mutilated, and when the poor get ignored, men, women and nations with a conscience must step in and act. People like that are the only hope for the world’s downtrodden and unfortunate. Stands must be taken and points must be made, even when common sense and logic fly in the face of such action.

This weekend’s earthquake and its casualties will haunt our news for the next few days. Again, a natural disaster has taken the world’s poor and shown us the victims of our neglect and inaction. I have a Time magazine that’s a year old (October 4, 2004) with one of the most widely recognized photos from the genocide. A year has gone by since the tragedy made national magazine covers. And it is still going on. Say what you want to about resources and politics. The fact remains that if everyone keeps going home, the people of Sudan will continue to lose hope, which for many, is the only thing they have left.