Last night I attended the Omnibus Lecture Series at IPFW with two great friends. It was better than a night out at Henry's. :) The presenter was Samantha Power and the topic was the Age of Genocide. Power is a fantastic speaker.
When she was just in her mid-twenties she covered the wars in the former Yugoslavia for U.S. News & World Report, The Boston Globe, and The Economist. Holy cow! Let's not even discuss what I was doing in my mid-twenties! She states, “The fact that you could see those men, in real-time, looking just like those black and white pictures we had all seen from the Holocaust, made a profound difference on whether people were prone to call their congressman. Congress, in turn, made a profound difference on the executive branch to respond.”
Power's lecture focused on genocides throughout the world in our recent history including Rwanda and she discussed the "tools in America's toolbox" that our government has to try and deal with such atrocities. She explained how the toolbox was never even opened to prevent the killing of hundreds of thousands of people, HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE! Power told of remarks made by a congress person to the press during the 1994 mass killing in Rwanda as the press wondered why nothing was being done. The congress person stated that their office had received many calls on the threat to the endangered gorillas in Rwanda during this time, while not one call had been made by constituents concerning the people of Rwanda. Makes you kind of ashamed, doesn't it?
Powers continued her lecture discussing the current atrocities in Darfur and how she believes that one of the reasons the people of our country are reacting now and putting pressure on our government in regards to Darfur is a result of the lack of awareness and reaction during recent past genocides. Throughout her entire lecture, Power remained adamant that it is the pressure from citizens not just in our country, but in countries around the globe that forces governments to open their "toolboxes" to try to put a stop to genocide.
Throughout the lecture though, I kept wondering where was the media coverage of Rwanda while the genocide was taking place? Why wasn't every citizen who tuned in aware? Why were most of us only acutely aware after it was too late?
And then I started thinking about the blogosphere. I have heard countless journalist complain as of late about bloggers who are "reporting the news". I'm tired of this. Why shouldn't we blog about about what is going on that we are aware of, that we are passionate about, that is often on page 9 in the newspaper or isn't covered at all, that we want to share with the people who subscribe to our blogs? We should.
I have become a blogoholic in the last few months and almost every blog I check daily is a news blog. And the best thing about blogs is that you can, if you are so inclined and I hope most people are, check blogs from various points of view. Hey, some of them aren't easy to read, but I still do. The other great thing about blogs is that they are written by people like me and you. Our views may be slanted, but at least we're passionate! Can we say the same about our media? Slanted? Yes. Passionate? I'll leave that up to you.
Power's lecture touched on many other things which at this point I am still processing, but overall, her lecture focused on how you and I as individuals can make a difference by calling up our representatives and voicing our concerns. Technology has made it easy for us. You can call 1-800-GENOCIDE to connect with your reps today. 1-800-GENOCIDE? Ya, I know it's disturbing, but you can't deny it's easy to remember.
Samantha Power's book Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide was awarded the 2003 Pulitzer for general non-fiction, the 2003 National Book Critics’ Circle Award for general non-fiction, and the Council on Foreign Relations’ Arthur Ross Prize for the best book on U.S. foreign policy. Check it out. It's next on my list. Let me know what you think.
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