FATAL INDIFFERENCE AND MACY'S WINDOWS
The tree is up in Rock Center. Macy's has its window display making merriment. Sidewalk trees in Washington and New York are sprouting red bulbs flecked with gold and little white lights at night.
Condolezza Rice in five inch heels (because she is shorter than DeVito) sits four pews from the rear of the National Presbyterian Church, a whitewashed tomb like building in Washington, DC, just as she always does when she is in town. She listens to one of those Sermons meant to make you feel the world is hunky dory even if you can't stop genocide and have caused a civil war and loss of life and limb in the hundreds of thousands (and your day at the office?) if only you accept Jesus in your heart. She heartily shakes the pastor's hand with two hands as she leaves the church and he wishes her well "on all your adventures."
Downstairs in the "Alternative Christmas Market" of the Church you can buy stuff for other people to make you feel less guilty about the money you will spend on your immediate family and yourself over Christmas. You write checks to other organizations to help them for various efforts. The Sudan Refugee Relief project in Darfur in conjunction with Action by Churches Together International ("ACT") will let you buy for $80. a "family survival kit" which consists of two plastic sheets, three blankets, two mosquito nets, soap, cooking supplies, fortified cereal, oil and sugar. That ought to fend off the Janjaweed militia assassins. I ask the nice gray- haired retired government worker lady at the Africa table if she has any information or pamphlets on what the church is doing in Darfur. Nope. Nothing. We aren't doing much of anything there. Can't stop it really. Let them at it if they want to kill each other off.
OK. So that is the formal church policy or just your informed opinion? Did you happen to notice that Condolezza Rice was sitting upstairs? This might be an obvious question but what is she doing about it? I heard there was some UN Resolution or something that might get signed- know anything about that?
The National Presbyterian Church pridefully boasts connections to Abraham Lincoln and General Eisenhower, both Presbyterians who frequented the church or its precursor churchs. It has an Eisenhower chapel dedicated to him. It has hosted most the big schmukety muck Presbyterians who ever held office in town at one time or another including the Doles, Dick Thornberg, Trent Lott, Frist, John Glenn, that taller than Karim Texan Bush advisor and "soccer mom" lady Karen Hughes and, of course, Condi. Condi is one of about ten darker- than- my- freckles people in the entire church but don't tell her you noticed. If she brings a friend she is one of about eleven black people. But don't ask her to racially identify with the ethnic slaugher of black people by white people in a place where the Middle East meets Africa just South of Egypt. And don't you dare tell her she isn't black enough if she didn't notice. In fact, don't talk to her, she's not there to make friends.
Let me get this straight. The African American Secretary of State of the leader of the Free World is either (a) indifferent to (b) unimpressed by (c) incompetent towards or (d) oblivious to
the largest genocidal slaughter of black Africans by whiter Muslims in her term in office and that we have seen in that region since Rwanda. Let's give her the benefit of the doubt. She already concluded she can't do anything about it- unlike Iraq where they try anyway and no one was engaging in ongoing mass slaughter at the time of our invasion.
Maybe it doesn't have oil. Maybe no one is going to name an oil cargo freighter after her for helping. Maybe she isn't going to get to be named to the Boards of Exxon Mobil or Phillips Connoco for helping.
Excuse me if I have this wrong but rape, murder, rape of children, chopping off the arms, slicing out the eyes and burning bodies alive strike me as a humanitarian crisis that should take slight precedence over face time with Malicki, but who am I?
Let me repeat it- rape, murder, rape of children, chopping off the arms, slicing out the eyes and burning bodies alive. This apparently evaded the "axis of evil" diagram.
And how was your Christmas? I hear that you can pick up Ferragamos pretty cheap in the January post-Christmas inventory Macy sales Condi. Care to do lunch?
Follow-Up:
Of course, it has oil, only the Chinese have one up on us in getting there. It's "complicated"
and this week's Economist magazine tries to explain it: http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8380843&fsrc=nwl
In December 6, 2004 John Podesta gave an address at Yale titled "Dealing with Darfur: Can the World Act on it's responsibility to Protect". If you call the Call the Center for American Progress they would be happy to send you a copy.
2 comments:
Postscript: I have received interesting comments on this article, none of which I CHOOSE TO POST. The more interesting on tried to cast this as a Christian persecution issue claiming the slaughter was of Animists and Christians which of course is false. As the Economist article explains, the Chrstina parts of Sudan which are sparce are in Southern Sudan predominantly and the Darfur region is to the West and now spilling into Chad. Eye witnesses reporting of individuals who were there filing have confirmed that these are Muslim villages being seiged by the Janjaweed and the persecution has nothing to do with religion. Were it a Christian population and persecution issue that would make it all the more appauling that we cater to Bashir's planned destruction of a part of Sudan's population while higher administration types proclaim their deep christian beliefs.
See the DVD and read the book Darfur Diaries which may be purchased on Amazon.
Generally I delete any profanity and insane ranting that people want to post because it is not productive to the dialogue and typically uninformed.
The John Podesta speech is a brilliant exposition concerning the need to raise the international consciousness to a response level everywhere and anywhere there is genocide of any kind to a "Duty to Protect" individuals or ethnic groups as well as nations under attack such as the NATO Charter warrants.
Some other person wrote that it was a black on black genocide- as if that should excuse international neglect and inaction.
That also is false. It is not a black on black crime thing that we can turn a blind eye toward. it is a more white Muslim Arab slaughter of blacker Muslims. That is not to say that is it strictly racistly motivated. It is likely motivated more by the government's coveting lands for its oil exploration in conjunction with a chinese petroleum company but that is a little deep for some to grasp.
Notwithstanding, our response or absence of any is directly tied to our catering Bashir because of our view of his assistance and cooperation with our basing counter-terrorist activities in the region and a base of a central listening post.
It is astounding to me that ANYONE would defend Condi in light of the fact that the world views our Foreign Policy as a bad Lucy episode of incompetence and tragic comedy.
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