Nightmare

Nightmare

I have a nightmare today that because of the world’s apathy and indifference hundreds of thousands more Darfurians will die. Will you let that happen?
I have a nightmare that we will act so slowly that this year thousands more women will be raped as a calculated Janjaweed tactic of war. Will you let that happen?
I have a nightmare that this year more villages will be scorched, more wells poisoned, and a million more innocent Darfurians driven out in this ongoing campaign to wipe them from the region. Will you let that happen?
I have a nightmare that despite the committed efforts of our President, Congress, and ourselves, we will commit the most tragic political sin good people can make – we will be too late. Will you let that happen?
I have a nightmare that years from now, there will be a Museum of the Darfurian Genocide that will be part of the genocide trail. And tourists will go from Cambodia to Rwanda, from Auschwitz and Treblinka to Darfur, and they will gasp and they will sob, and many among them will doubtless wonder: Where were our parents? Did they not know? Did they not care? Will you let that happen?
This is why I am here, encouraging you to speak up: for the people of Darfur have no one else who will rescue them. Let us begin anew tomorrow: lobbying and calling our senators and representatives, demanding action now, donating to Darfur Campaigns, and spreading the word.
Having affirmed the promise, we must go forward and not cease in our actions until we have transformed the nightmare – into a dream of hope, freedom, and security for all the people of Darfur.

Works Cited
Ajak, Benjamin, Benson Deng, and Alephonsion Deng. They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky : The True Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan. New York: PublicAffairs, 2006.
Cheadle, Don, and John Prendergast. Not on Our Watch : The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond. New York: Hyperion P, 2007.
"Children's stories from Darfur." The Darfur Challenge. Save Darfur...

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