Eight Years Later, Hundreds of Thousands Dead

There is no denying the genocide in Darfur and Sudan, and yet, I truly hope that our government, and the people of the United States decides to step up and make a difference in Darfur, because we cannot just sit around and watch innocent people be murdered. The genocide began in early 2003, and yet our government waited a whole year in order to make sure that the Sudanese government was actually mass murdering their citizens. What I do not understand is why the our government decided to wait until 2004 to, "Charged Sudan with genocide - the first time a government has made such an accusation at another government since the U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide was adopted in 1948" (ADL Darfur Resource Center). As a citizen of the United States I would think that our government would have learned from past experiences, and would have changed. Due to our government's procrastination hundreds of thousands of innocent citizens have died, millions have been displaced, and an, "Estimated 3.5 million people afflicted by the crisis are suffering from hunger" (ADL Darfur Resource Center). Our government should have acted, and ended the genocide in 2003 right when it started, in order to eliminate progression, but now eight years later advancement within the Janjaweed and other rebel groups have taken place making the genocide much harder to stop. I'm not trying to diminish our government actions because the citizens of Darfur and Sudan need all the help they can get, but I believe that our government needs send more aid, because our current actions are not working, which means we need to develop new ideas. I was reading a short story called Bush Pigs by Richard Dooling, and I was blown away by one of his comments which was, "The U.S. Government sent me to Sierra Leone to help starving Africans, but at least half the time, the starving Africans took care of me" (Richard Dooling). Based on my observations on the documentaries i have watched, I have learned that the citizens of Darfur and Sudan are extremely grateful for food, water, clothes, toys, and other basic essential items, which we take for granted in America. I found this quote interesting because it shows how we as Americans are not doing much to help these people, and yet when we travel to Africa in order to help them they are the ones who are helping us. Our government needs to develop new tactics in order to better support the victims of Darfur and Sudan. Getting involved is easy, and it makes a huge difference in the long run. You can write a letter to President Obama, pressure the government of Sudan to allow humanitarian relief to reach all affected people in Darfur, or simply contact your local newspaper and television stations. Make donations and publicize this genocide as much as possible in order to inform the uninformed people, because every contribution makes a difference to the people in Darfur and Sudan. Every day another life is lost, thousands are displaced, and many die from dieses and hunger, so I challenge all of you to get involved and end the genocide.