PDEC's David Rosenberg Recalls April 19 Day of Witness

You can't do enough, but you've got to do something!

Can we stop genocide in Darfur from Pittsburgh? Certainly not singlehandedly. But if enough of us combine forces and keep at it, as the participants in the DC-Metro Event and in the more than 300 other events around the country are doing during "Genocide Prevention Month," we may be able to accomplish something! Leaders of the Darfuri diaspora, like Niemat Ahmadi and Mohamed Yahya, and national advocacy leaders like Jerry Fowler, the Rev. Gloria White Hammond, and John Prendergast assure with passion that we have already helped save lives in Darfur. We know we must continue. But, we know there is a lot more work to do before Darfur will be brought into the framework of a political settlement and a Sudan-wide peace and before 2.7 million IDP's and refugees can return home and rebuild.

Can we stop genocide merely by boarding a bus from Pittsburgh, even if we include a courageous 89 year old Holocaust survivor, a half dozen members of the Pittsburgh South Sudanese community and a half dozen Rwandan students, as well as college and high school groups and post-graduate "retirees?" No, surely not. This small army cannot achieve miracles by ourselves. But can we afford to do nothing?

Our three busloads of travelers visited the US Holocaust Museum on Sunday before the Testimony and Advocacy Event in Lafayette Park. Our visit to the Holocaust Museum won't immediately stop President Bashir in his tracks or drive recalcitrant rebel groups to the table. But the power of what we learned there and felt there will drive us, and the transmission belt of determination will reach President Obama and his administration and will by and by reach the Sudanese government. We placed objects on the remarkable memorial created for the Testimony and Advocacy event. And we held up signs of Darfur's destroyed villages against the backdrop of the White House and invited others to join with us. "Hey, folks, these are some of the more than 2,751 villages that have been identified as destroyed or damaged in Darfur since 2004, on "our watch." Add these to the funeral pyres of the genocides that are part of "history!"

When we took five buses to Washington D.C. from Pittsburgh in April 2006, we had an opportunity to draw strength from the huge throng on the Capitol Mall; when we traveled to NYC in September 2006, we had a chance to visit the British representative on the UN Security Council and draw inspiration from the crowd of blue bereted activists in Central Park demanding deployment of a robust peacekeeping force. When we bused the five hours to DC for the Torch Relay finale,we had a chance to hear Olympic athletes and send a message to the Chinese embassy. When we traveled to D.C. to see the hundreds or magnificently painted tents on the mall (12 of them from our city), we drew further inspiration. And when we sent three more buses to Washington for the Inauguration and gathered more than 4,700 signatures as part of the postcard campaign asking President Obama to prioritize peace, protection and accountability in Darfur, we were moved by our attendance at a historic moment and inspired to do still more.

Sunday's gathering in Lafayette Park was not a throng, but the words continue to burn in our hearts. In the face of crying evil, can one possibly do enougn? Can one possibly do nothing?

David Rosenberg