Day #8 May 21: "We hold the Power"

9:15pm White House - Round the Clock Vigil

"We - even we here - hold the power, and bear the responsibility." Abraham Lincoln (from Samantha Power, "Problem from Hell.")

The day has been spent here talking about the urgent need to scream support to our elected officials for immediately putting 20,000 UN peace keepers on the ground. Spoke with some great folks, and shared with them the need for urgency and action. Photos below.

And time was spent, reading, and rereading portions of "The Problem from Hell," about the US non-response to Genocides in the last 100 years. I offer the following quotes as a Bottom Line of Power's findings as to why WE HAVE NEVER STOPPED A GENOCIDE. It is NOT that we didn't know, couldn't afford, were opposed internationally....

THE REASONS WE DIDN'T ACT / THE REASONS WE WILL PROBABLY NOT ACT THIS TIME:

* "It is in the realm of domestic politics that the battle to stop genocide is lost. American political leaders interpret society-wide silence as an indicator of public indifference."

* "They reason that they will incur no costs if the United States remains uninvolved but will face steep risks if they engage."

* "The battle to stop genocide has thus been repeatedly lost in the realm of domestic politics... Americans outside the executive branch were largely mute when it mattered. As a result of this society-wide silence, officials at all levels of government calculated that the political costs of getting involved in stopping genocide far exceeded the costs of remaining uninvolved."

* "It takes political pressure to put genocide on the map in Washington."

* "...Individuals ... would have to make a difference, which is not the same as believing that they would [succeed]."

I pray on behalf of our Darfur family that "We - even we here..." TAKE the power, and TAKE the RESPONSIBILITY, NOW.