Change

In the most heated (and expensive) mid term elections in US history a reported 40% of eligible voters are expected to turn out. In most countries around the world that number would not even allow for the vote to be considered legitimate, but in a land that speaks so strongly about the values of Democracy and Freedom that is a good turn out. How sad is it the a nation of people who are willing to invade, bomb, sanction, and marginalize other countries for their lack of democracy so willingly throw their right away when election day comes.

Even the papers in Khartoum talk about the mid-term elections in the US. It seems that everyone knows how important these events are except the United State’s own citizens. The choices you make today affect the rest of the world…a fact that is so often lost on those with the vote. Here in Darfur the US has put intense public pressure on the Sudanese Government to end their campaign of violence, while at the same time they fly top military leaders of the government who are responsible for the atrocities to Washington D.C. for talks about the “War on Terror”. A country cannot “have its cake and eat it to”, a fact that is effecting the lives of millions of Darfurians on a daily basis.

Changing the world and helping those in need does not require every person of wealth to leave their homes and become aid workers in far off lands. Action takes many forms…and today the action needed is simply to exercise your right to vote. The foundation of change is made from knowledge and action…and today the pebble you cast into the pond will send ripples around the world.