activism chic

darfur is an issue near and dear to my heart, which i'm sure many of you know, having met me at least once in person. the people, the conflict, and the potential for peace in that region are something to which i've devoted a great deal of interest, time, and research. i still read the sudan trib and scour the times and the economist for articles on the region, and as a few close friends will attest, one of my favourite things to do is discuss the finer points of the conflict and conflict resolution in sudan. i have talked about it in my sleep. it can only be described as a passion.

so i have mixed feelings about the prominence of activism on the issue and the movement in general. i've really been along for the ride -- from day one when we created the organization that was to spread nationally and internationally, to this day -- and now i have stepped back from the movement and am trying to grapple with my place in the situation at large. participating in all of this to the extent that i have has certainly provided a great deal of perspective. and as happy as i am that the movement has gained the attention that it has, there's something about its larger-than-lifeness which stings at times of insincerity. darfur in some ways (many ways) has become a "hip" cause and i'm just not sure how i feel about it. i couldn't possibly sum this up as well as my dear friend tay does in this wonderful editorial, so i'll leave that to her.

but i had an experience today that bothered me, somewhat along those lines, and i just had to put it out there. georgetown STAND (it used to be Students Taking Action Now: Darfur, and is now simply STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition -- don't even get me started on the ramifications of the name change and why it bothers me so much), the organization which i co-founded and which led to the founding of hundreds of other organizations like it across the country, still holds events on georgetown's undergraduate campus (the violence, after all, is far from over in darfur). this year, one of its initiatives is to hold weekly die-ins on campus. for those of you who have never been to/witnessed a die-in, the whole point is that you lie on the ground, looking dead, to physically demonstrate and draw attention to the civilian deaths in darfur. the best one i ever participated in was right out front of the white house. i think we might have annoyed mr. prez, but it definitely got the point across. anyhow, i digress. the weekly die-ins.

well, since i am still on georgetown STAND's listserv, i have received lovely emails the last two weeks informing me politely that the die-ins have been cancelled due to inclement weather. now, i'll give you that it's currently 42F outside and raining a kind of light, nasty, drizzly rain. but i have to say that the emails still bother me. it's a function of where we are and who we are that we get to decide not to "go outside and die" because it's not warm and sunny out. how can we claim to represent these people when we won't endure even the slightest bit of physical discomfort to give their cause a voice? i almost wanted to send an email back to the listserv: do you think the darfuris stop dying due to inclement weather? it's the incapsulation of my disillusionment with the movement. it's the incapsulation of activism chic.

we'll stand for something...but not when it's raining.