I know that some people were curious about the non-appearance of George Clooney at the Oscar Awards on Sunday. And even more people are wondering about his appearance on the final episode of E.R. But far more important is the actual place he was at.
On Sunday, George Clooney delivered 250,000 postcards to President Obama from the Save Darfur organization. He then discussed his latest, and 6th, trip to the Darfur region.
It is in the Sudan where the genocide of Darfur has been taking place since 2003. Clooney, Don Cheadle, Brad Pitt and several other prominent celebrities and activists around the world have been trying to draw attention and help end the genocide for years, and I support that too.
The work of Save Darfur, the movie Darfur Now with Don Cheadle, and several other efforts have been mostly unheeded by the U.S. Government, including Congress. It is Congress that has been incapable of passing a single bill of legislation to place pressure on the Sudanese Government to end this slaughter of innocents. And that includes Democrats and Republicans alike.
But President Obama is supposed to be the President of change. He is supposed to be doing things differently in Washington. So I hope this meeting with George Clooney is the first step in a path where America does something to help end the death of children, women and men.
I think that the President cannot ask China to do anything, until the U.S. acts in a similar manner. Since 2004 the Congress has been unable to pass HR 180 IH, which would bar U.S. businesses from working with the Sudan – effectively helping to cut their funding for this genocide. To date over 400,000 are estimated to have been killed with 2.5 million, including children, refugees searching for safety from the fighting. If America will not stop funding such acts of vile murder, how can we expect China to do so?
But I am glad of this. At least Presaident Obama has listened to the plea. Even though he has never voted in favor of HR 180 IH while in Congress, and the fact he did not speak about Darfur on the campaign trail, this is a step in the right direction. But I hope he acts on it. Just as he promised in the media ignored, undiscussed trip to Chad
And I am glad that celebrities and entertainers like Don Cheadle, Brad Pitt, George Clooney and so many more are actively doing something beyond lip-service for this cause. So I don’t mind he was not at the Oscar Awards, nor do I care about the end of ER. Some things are just more important.
1 comment:
Comment as found at 1800blogger, where I am a contributing author.
Maria Torrini Says:
April 5th, 2009 at 12:17 pm e
George is one to be admired. Instead of abusing his celeb status, he is trying to draw attention and obtain aide to war torn countries like Darfur, Chad. The problem isn’t Don or George, its our own people. You won’t get anyone to send aide as they don’t see that as a priority. Perhaps doing a series of PSA’s in which they show clips of thier trips on national tv, cable, with both Don and George doing narration, voice overs, you can make a plea to the American people here for public assistance. If enough of us banded together, did fund raisers, we could indeed make a crack in the larger problem. From there, you can ask for in kind donations from corporate. When you dangle a carrot, you get more flies with honey. George did the right thing forgoing both the Academy Awards and ER Finale, his absence spoke volumes. It was a strong statement that he felt he could do more good on this cause, than a season finale, or caca show like the frou frou awards.
Exposure on this issue in the Huffington Post by writers like Jeanine Molloff also help as that gains world wide readers. Jen in her magical way knows how to take an issue and draw serious attention to it, gaining national and international exposure. Darfur won’t be going hungry for long with Jeanine exposing wasteful spending by our leaders. I suspect you will see aide coming before summers end. These are the kind of writers you want behind causes of this kind. We hit the achilles, exposing the people who write off Darfur, Chad, many other like nations. Ya hit hard and often enough someone says ouch, and takes notice. Obama needs this kind of prodding as well. Politically, its inexcusable to ignore these issue much longer. Aside from the hypocrissy, it makes him look like he is aligned with the very party he tried to beat in the election. Lip service won’t cut it, we need action, funds and people willing to force the issue to gain aide for these families.
George might never have the chance to meet me, but behind the scenes, he needs to know he has people working to help his causes, get members of congress and the senate to take action. I think its far more important than any ER ending, or awards show I didn’t watch. If in the black communities we can get a network going, building aide to be sent to these areas it will send a strong message. They voted Obama in, now they want him to show he isn’t another Bush, do the right things. Helping end the violence, lend aide is the right thing, Mr. President. You have it to run wars we don’t need, let’s give some of that money to people who do need it, here and abroad.
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