The horrors of genocide are almost unimaginable on a bright sunny day. But imagined and examined they must be if kindness and compassion are ever to rule the day on our planet.
And eradicating the use of rape as a weapon of war, genocide, and other mass atrocities is just what the organizers of the first San Francisco Bay Area Walk Against Genocide intend to do today at Lake Merritt in Oakland (www.walkagainstgenocide.org).
Young and old, conservative and liberal, men, women, and even children are coming together today (Sunday, April 10, 2011) to tell the world’s leaders with one voice that the continuing practice of genocide anywhere on our globe is unacceptable.
Teams of walkers from such diverse cultural and religious institutions as the First United Methodist Church of Redding, American Jewish World Service, Archbishop Riordan Cal High, the Coalition of Tamils Against Genocide, Maryknoll, Moishe House, the Coalition of Welcoming Congregations, the AFSC Quakers, Temple Beth Abraham, the San Francisco Bay area Darfur Coalition, and the Women of Temple Sinai, among others will step off on a 3-mile trek after listening to a program of inspirational speakers.
Mike Abramowitz, Director of the Committee on Conscience at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, will join Omer Ismail, a policy advisor to agencies responding to conflicts in Africa, and Rebecca Hamilton, author of, Fighting for Darfur: Public Action and Struggle to Stop Genocide, in discussing the status of genocide prevention and response worldwide.
If you’re sitting at home reading this story with a cup of coffee thinking it’s too late for you to join with the community and participate, it’s not. Check-in and registration will begin at 11:00 a.m. at Lake Merritt (between 22nd and 23rd streets in Oakland with easy access to BART and parking; look for the balloons or volunteers in green shirts). A special program with internationally respected speakers will begin at 12:00 p.m. with information tables available before and after the walk, which will begin at 2:00.
If you simply can’t make it over to Lake Merritt today, donations will still be accepted by individual walking teams and the San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition for another month via the walk’s web site (www.walkagainstgenocide.org). Proceeds will be used to benefit the work being done by the Catholic Relief Services (www.crs.org), American Jewish World Service (www.ajws.org), and San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition (www.darfursf.org) to respond to and, ultimately, eliminate future atrocities.
When you consider that many of the children, women, and men most affected by genocide live on less than a dollar a day, even a small donation of $5.00 can make a big difference.
It’s time to for all of us to make real the ideal of, “Never again." The horrors of genocide should not be something we still have to face on a sunny day. Not in the 21st century.
All together now, say it loud and clear to those in power worldwide: “No more excuses. No more debates. Enough is enough.”
Up next in this series: California Genocide Prevention and Awareness Month. Also stay tuned for more news about the issue of genocide as the Bay Area Spirituality Examiner profiles several of our area’s most inspirational leaders involved in making our world kinder and more compassionate.
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