A Poem-Pick A Number

I cant hear the tears of Katrina.
Nor do I see the fire of the burned buildings of 9/11
Theres a long line of victims that need me,
Im sorry if these tragedies don’t speak to me.

I don’t see the bodies on top of bodies gassed from the Holocaust.
Nor do I feel the pain of the families that have been lost.
You may never forget, but I will never remember you.
In this world, I wouldn’t blame you if you never remembered me too.

Numb to any kind of pain
Tears don’t come out to play.
I come from a long line of survivors and wall makers.
My mother always told me to let no one in,
Especially not them law makers.

In this world no one hears your pain,
You may cry and scream, but its muffled
By what they can gain.
Will saving you, make their money flow change?
Or will making your soul whole again make their financials stay the same?
See, its all a game.

I cant sympthaize with what you want me to pity you for.
My life line has more pain then you can endure.
When I sigh, its not cause of what hurts me presently.
Its my ancestors crying tears through me spiritually.
They don’t cry cause of what’s happen to them,
Not cause they were hung, shot, burned due to the shade of their skin.
They cry cause their death was in vain,
So much struggle, and look how far we’ve came.

Still dancing still singing,
Making them money.
We’re not beautiful,
Unless we have straight hair and a whole lot of money.
We rather fight each other
Rather for each other.
We’ll kill someone
Who looks like our brother.
For ideas that more than likely were planted in our minds
By a white mother lover
Whose only intention is
To kill us
And gets away with it cause
He’s a cop -undercover.

Slavery isn’t over,
Racism still breathes.
The same land our forefathers found,
Is the same land my people bleed.
Even at home, they’ve turned us against each other.

Fighting over borders that only a map they don’t see can determine,
No longer a home, but a battle ground for
What was, could have been but never will be.
My ancestors sigh because this is what THEY see.
Fought for freedom only for the mental enslavement of their offspring.
Would you die for the future, if you knew it wouldn’t mean a thing?

How free are we if we don’t even live in reality?
How real is this world,
When everything is a game of terminology.
Its not genocide by your definition,
Yet my people die, every time you don’t listen.
Every time you close your eyes, thousands close theirs too.
Only you wake up to a new day,
They don’t wake up to a new sky so blue.
A mother wakes up to a child that’s died in her arms
A child wakes up an orphan,
And still finds the peace within to go to school and live on.
Yet Britney Spears seems like in her mind, the lights don’t come on.
Sean Puffy Combs only votes for a year.
I guess he voted and didn’t die and that was the
End of his political career.

Yet, We’re still here.
We’re still shedding tears.
Hears are broken,
Lives are not living.
American dreams are no longer pretty.
White picket fences seem a lot more dirty.
Whats the point in getting up early tomorrow morning?
We’re still in mourning.

I cant cry for you cause my tears are soaking up the pain that’s already been felt.
I cant fix you, cause there’s a long line of people who really need my help.

All I can say is,
pick a number.

Recent News in Darfur Conflict

Reported at 12:38 am on March 9, 2007

"THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Women in Darfur continue to be subjected to rape by all sides in the brutal conflict in western Sudanese region, the U.N. human rights chief said Thursday — International Women's Day. "

The minute a woman in Darfur steps outside of a refugee camp, she is subjected to one of the most demeaning, horrible, and life shattering acts another person could inflict upon her.

Rape–noun

1.the unlawful compelling of a woman through physical force or duress to have sexual intercourse.

2. Any act of sexual intercourse that is forced upon a person.

If you’re a female, imagine being forced from your home. Your house was burned down, you witnessed the gruesome murder of some of your neighbors, young children that you use to see walk to school everyday, abducted and forced to go with strange men; probably will become part of a child army. Now you live in a refugee camp. Displaced with no where to go, you now live in a camp with your family. Still, you must carry out essential chores to survive, such as fetching fire wood. Your father or brother would go get it, but your mother fears that they will be murdered if they leave the camp. So instead, you go, at least you have a better chance of coming back alive.

If your a male, imagine being in a similar situation. You’re in a camp. Your ego may even be bruised do to the fact that you couldn’t protect your family from this unfortunate event from happening. To add insult to extreme injury, you must watch your mother or sister leave your side. As she walks out of your protection, away from your watchful eye, you think of all the horrible things that could happen to her on her journey. She's only going because its better that you stay alive, despite the fact that a rebel may take full advantage of her vulnerability.

It seems as if that could never happen, especially when you live in America. However, human beings in this world, in this life, living at this moment, go through this everyday. We take advantage of the fact that we live freely. Our everyday concerns are how we are going to get through school without fighting someone, or how I can get those sneakers with this paycheck. No one can just come and burn down our home. When we go to the store, in the middle of the day, do we really fear being raped by some guy backed by government power? It may cross our mind when we see someone strange, but is it a priority concern? Do you fear your father or brother being murdered just for being a civilian every time they walk out the door to your home?

In addition, some of these women in Darfur are having babies because of these rapes.

""These women have children from these rapes — children to whom they cannot give a name because they're the children of janjaweed," as the government-backed rebels are known, Arbour said. The janjaweed are blamed for some of the worst atrocities in the Darfur conflict."

How would it feel to raise a child without a name? How would it feel to raise a child whose father you barely know, but hate? What do you do in these situations?

After reading this article, my daily concerns and conflicts seem ignorant and childish, almost irrelevant. I almost feel ashamed for living the life I do, knowing that there are probably young women my age living in fear and desperation. It makes you wonder, how do they live? How do they find the strength to go on? The murder rate in Africa is probably higher than it is in America, but I wonder if America's suicide rate is higher than it is in Africa. If it is, why? Compared to the things that Africans go through, Americans have it a lot easier.

When a woman gets raped in America, and God forbids gets pregnant because of it, it becomes a media issue. Even now, that issue is being discussed in Congress. However, these are hypothetical theories being tested- in Africa, its happening. Who’s coming up with laws to help them? Women in America take the morning after pill because of a one night stand. African women in Darfur need the morning after pill after being raped by janjaweed man. I wonder if Bush would still be pro-life, if the same atrocities going on in Africa, were happening here in America...

http://www.unobserver.com/articleimages/Mercy%20Corps%20Darfur%20Lg.jpg

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070309/ap_on_re_af/war_crimes_darfur_1;_ylt=Al9ZwUAZDyyZgadvZNA0nSYShIMA

Dear Mr Bush, Save Darfur

When people want to make a point about an issue they have, they usually do one of two things.
1) Write a bunch of letters to their government.
2) Blow up buildings

But, the humnaitarians who want to stop the genocide in Darfur have done something a little different. With over 170 faith-based humanitarian organizations in alliance with one another working to raise awareness about the genocide taking place in Darfur, this coalition represents 130 million people. Dedicated to the security of the people of Darfur, every member signs a unity statement that describes the conditions and urgencies concerning this issue.

According to Savedarfur.com, Darfur has become one of the biggest genocide chalenges since the Rwanda genocide that took place in 1994. Militia supported by the governemnt have taken over and destroyed villages, raped women and girls, killed men and boys, and have purposely detroyed essential life utilities such as food and water. Over a million people have moved away from their homes, and thousands have died due to the 'Janjaweed' militia's violence.

An estimated 350,000 people are expected to die within the next months, and according to organizations such ass Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders), this number may be 'conservative'. Doctors Without Borders suggest that the figure presented by USAID,The United States Agency for International Development , may need to rise at as many as a million people if something is not done to help the situation.

The SaveDarfur organization tries to raise awareness through advertisements, their website, and project plans. Apparently Plan A has not worked, so now, they are asking their members to start calling Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates and demand that they launch “Plan B”.