Pledge2Protect Day 3

Minus Larry and Arielle who left early for a 9 AM flight to make it back for the play, we gathered for a quick bite around 8, checked our bags with the bellhop, and set up for our march up Capitol Hill. Of the 900 or so at the conference, about 300 stayed for this event. Holding signs and chanting, we marched to the Hart Office building where we gathered for a photo op. Our group actually went in the Russell Building and then followed the tunnels to Hart. There we gathered en masse. Having been warned not to disturb, we nonetheless held our signs up to the cameras and broke out in applause. From there, everyone rapidly broke up to head for their lobbying appointments.

On the March:



At the Hart Building:


We walked over to Rayburn for our appointment in Rep, Delahunt’s office. On the way we passed by the Supreme Court building where there was a long line, presumably to hear today’s arguments on the Florida cases involving giving life sentences to minors.

At the USSC:


We met with Tracey Jacobsen, who is counsel for the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight, which Delahunt chairs. This puts Delahunt (and Tracey) in a strong position to influence the bills we are advocating. We showed her a video that STAND had produced on the Genocide Prevention Task Force, which emphasized that preventing genocide is both achievable and in our national security interest. We have the ability and responsibility to do so. We then gave her our five legislative priorities.

1) Begin to implement the GPTF recommendations, specifically support the creation of a Emergency Crisis Fund at the high level of $100 million as passed by the Senate.

2) On Sudan, support the Obama administration’s policy review, and sign on to the Wolf-Capuano letter urging the President to make Sudan a high priority in his upcoming discussions with China.

3) Support HR 898 calling for the UN Security Council to form a Commission of Inquiry into the ongoing human rights abuses in Burma.

4) Consider signing on as an original co-sponsor for a pending bill to require all mineral producers to make their processing facilities auditable for the source of their minerals, so that we can begin to trace where the conflict minerals from the Congo are going.

5) Support HR2478 on the disarmament of the Lord’s Resistance Army in NE Congo and to fund recovery from their past atrocities.

Tracey was impressed by the presentation and also alerted us to another bill which Rep. Delahunt is sponsoring – the International Violence Against Women Act. This is a piece of legislation that could impact policy in all of the conflict we are focusing on and is something we definitely want to support. Overall, this was an exhilarating and informative exercise in human rights lobbying. It helps that Rep. Delahunt is already such a great advocate for human rights causes!

Behind Rep. Delahunt's desk:


From there, we headed to the new Capitol Visitors’ Center for a Capitol Tour. This was a new and different experience from past visits. We saw an interesting film then were whisked through for a very brief and partial 20 minute tour. Delahunt’s office had given us passes for the House Gallery, so we got to visit that as well – I think the first time I had been there. We all had a similar reaction that it isn’t as big as it seems on TV during a presidential address.

In the Capitol:



We managed to keep a tight schedule and get to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee offices in the Dirksen building for an appointment with Andrew Weintraub on Sen. Kerry’s staff. Andrew had already been lobbied by a STAND delegation this morning, so we kept to a general conversation about the issues rather than being completely repetitive. Again, we are fortunate that our Senator is in such a key leadership role as the chair of the Committee – we actually met with Andrew in the hearing room – the same room where he once testified as the head of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and where I was motivated by watching a subcommittee hearing on the Iran-Contra Affair as a 16 year old. Like Tracey, Andrew was very knowledgeable, and very supportive of the students and the cause.

In the Senate Foreign Relations hearing room:


From there, we headed back to the hotel to get our bags, after one last picture on the Capitol steps:


We then walk one last time to Union Station for a late lunch and to catch the MARC train to BWI. We got to our 5:40 flight to Boston in plenty of time and had another great JetBlue experience on the way home. We had time for a quick bite at Logan and then caught the 7:45 P&B bus to the Cape – arriving at exit 6 at 9:40.

At Union Station:


Overall, we had a great trip. We made all our connections and appointments on time. We fit in a wide variety of capitol experiences, and most importantly, we leave educated, informed and inspired to redouble our efforts to pursue our anti-genocide mission. I come back to the analogy of the anti-slavery movement and the comment from the gentleman from Congo. We need to both take the long view that our efforts push slowly toward a world without genocide, and at the same time try to take actions that make a real difference for the victims of genocide today. We will continue, and to record here, our efforts in this mission.

Pledge2Protect Day 2

Good morning! We had a wonderful run this morning around the Washington Monument (well I did anyway). Then on to breakfast, and a fascinating plenary on Burma. Well, depressing. Dr. Tom Van Dyke started - to summarize: The military junta, led by Than Shwe, has perpetrated genocide on ethic minorities in Eastern and Western Burma, for example the Karen people. They (the government/military) use forced labor (including military porters who are shot when they stop), narcotics trafficking, torture, rape, religious persecution, landmines, forced relocation into concentration camps, destruction of food supplies, landmines, burning villages, disease, and direct attacks on civilians in free-fire zones. They do this for ethnic dominance and “burmaficaiton”, for the control of natural resources, and for increasing political control. The situation is so bad that essentially no outside organization can operate there. But domestic groups have sprung up to try to provide protection and relief – such as the BNRA and the Free Burma Rangers.

At the Burma plenary:


Next Myra Dahgaypaw of the Karen National Union spoke. She spoke in vivid terms of the mass atrocities there. At one point, as she recounted the murder of her family members, she stopped and broke down. After a minute of silence, we broke into an applause of support. After a few more minutes she was able to continue and describe the fate of her aunt who was raped to death while her husband was forced to watch and then her husband was skinned, smothered with salt and chiles and left to bleed to death. Even in this room of people who confront this issue all the time, her account was stunning.

Giving Myra a standing O:


Patrick Cook-Deegan gave us a review of current Obama administration policy on Burma, led by Kurt Campbell, Assistant Secretary of State. There are four pillars – 1) release political prisoners (est. 2100), 2) End all conflict with ethnic minorities (i.e., stop the genocide!), 3) establish a tripartite dialogue between the junta, the democracy movement, and the ethnic minorities, and 4) accountability for human rights abuses. While Burma has been under this brutal regime since 1988, there is a sense of a worsening crisis for the ethnic minorities there. We must act!

After the Burma plenary, we attended regional breakout to prepare for Lobby Day on Monday, for which (our own!) MacKenzie Hamilton is the overall coordinator. Our Massachusetts session was led by Allyson Neville, who led us through the basics of the process – what to say, how to approach issues, etc. We are pretty fired up for our meetings tomorrow!

Ms. Kehoss then led the students on a walk down the mall to the National Archives – another gorgeous 70 degree day in DC. Meanwhile I attended a session on the Carl Wilkens Fellowship to which I have applied. This was informative session, in which several current fellows described their work. One memorable moment came when a gentleman from Congo asked a question about whether what we do actually makes a difference? It hasn’t for him people in eastern Congo – the genocide goes on. In one of the responses, one of the fellows made the analogy to the anti-slavery movement. Many people lived and died working for the end of slavery and never seeing it. But their actions helped eventually to bring that day. Perhaps our efforts to end genocide are similar.

We met up again for lunch at the concluding panel of the Conference. Carl Wilkens himself started with his story from Rwanda – he was the only American to stay when the U.N. evacuated Rwanda as the genocide began. He stayed and helped shelter and feed hundreds of orphans who would have otherwise perished, while his wife Theresa took their kids to Kenya. As he told his story he shoed pictures of the children who he helped and w who survived and those who were killed. Carl is a dynamic and poiwerful speaker. When MacKenzie did genocide recovery work in Rwanda last summer with Global Youth Connect, she became friends with one of the orphans he saved – it was an emotional moment as I took her picture with the Wilkens.

Carl Wilkens:


MacKenzie with Theresa and Carl Wilkens:


The panel continued with Joey Cheeks, gold medalist speed skater, who told of how he came to decide to use his celebrity to combat genocide. He talked about he bystander effect where people often ignore people in peril rather than risk getting involved. But as he said, if it was you on the ground getting beat up, wouldn’t you want someone to stop and help? Oscar Morales spoke – he who started the One Million Voices against the FARC movement, which culminated in a international march in which 14 million people participated. Also, Johnny Strange, a high school student who has scaled the seven highest peaks in the world, spoke of his commitment to the issue, posing on the top of Everest with a sign “Stop Genocide.” Then Layla Amjadi, STAND’s Student Director told her story of commitment to the cause. Then after we acknowledged the Coordinators who organized this fabulous conference, the day ended with an inspirational speech by Sam Bell.

After the conclusion, we walked down the mall on this spectacular afternoon to the Holocaust Museum. This experience is powerful to the point of being indescribable. For most of our group, it was their first time through the museum – what an invaluable experience. We walked back in the last fading colors of dusk to Capitol Hill, and went to enjoy another dinner at the food court at Union Station – this is one of my favorite places to eat anywhere!

At the Washington Monument:


At the Holocaust Museum:


On the walk back to the hotel:


The Capitol:


Dinner at Union Station:


At 7, we met Tess back at the hotel for a night monument tour. We spent time at the WWII Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, The FDR Memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial (also walking through the Vietnam and Korean War Memorials). The night tour never disappoints . . .

On the night tour w/ Tess - the WWII Memorial:


At the Jefferson Memorial:



Hangin' with Abe:


At the Korean War Memorial:

Pledge2Protect Day 1

What a crazy day! We all got up around 2 AM to make it to the bus at 3. Check that. Most of us never went to bed having spent the night at the Leadership Lockin. This made for a quiet bus ride to Logan. We got through Logan fine and got our DD. Then we boarded on time for the hour flight to BWI.


Arrived BWI at 8 and were loaded up with our van driver Tess by 8:30. Strolled into the Hyatt at 9 just as the first plenary on Sudan was starting.

We listened to several speakers, including MA’s own Rep. Jim McGovern – who was excellent – “It doesn’t take a gun to commit genocide, germs will work just as well” if we leave people malnourished and without health care in refugee camps. Also, “The world will not get better on its own.” Michelle Gavin, from the NSC, urged us to 1) focus on not just what must be stopped, but what must be built, 2) help us multilateralize, and 3) hold us (the administration) accountable. Dr. Mohammed Ahmed Abdallah, of el-Fasher, Darfur, expressed that people in Darfur are disappointed. People are still raped, killed, left homeless – nothing has changed. We must keep up the pressure on our government to DO something about it – the only people who should feel “Darfur fatigue” are the Darfuris!

At this point, 10:30, most of us retired to the rooms for a badly needed morning nap. I attended a fascinating breakout session on the Congo. We got a quick review of the origins of the conflict – starting in the late 90’s as Rwanda supported a force to battle the remnants of the Interhamwe from the Rwandan genocide, leading to the fall of Mubutu, and the rise of Kabila. Since then, changing alliances and the absence of any real Congo army has created deepening instability and an infestation of forces using rape and mass murder to control areas and exploit the spiraling price of minerals fond in Congo that are critical to modern electronic devices – Conflict Minerals. This conflict has left approx. 5,000,000 dead in the last decade or so. Learned some of the actors – FDLR – bad guys (everyone with guns pretty much are mass killers, including the “army” – the horrid Kimea II campaign this year). Also got a primer on the brutal LRA that has migrated from N.Uganda/S.Sudan to NE Congo. Overall, you get the picture of a failed state with vast remote ungoverned territory leaving local populations exposed to these mass atrocities.

I also attended a really informative and depressing session on the elections in Sudan. Folks from the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute (not partisan groups, but agencies doing the work on the ground trying to help fledgling democracies around the world) described the work they are doing learning from and informing citizens about the elections. My takeaway is that we are heading for a train wreck. The presidential election in 2010 will not be “free and fair” or even likely “good enough”. They are in the middle of supposedly registering the entire country – which there isn’t the infrastructure to do. But despite the sham, the South Sudanese will want the election to go forward since this a step toward the referendum on independence for S, Sudan in 2011. But the 2010 election will “legitimize” and embolden Bashir, who will probably sabotage the 2011 referendum. Whether he cancels or rigs or ignores the referendum, it seems certain to trigger violence that will kill thousands, probably hundreds of thousands.

The gang reemerged for lunch at 1, as we listened to a plenary on the Congo. It started with a dynamic “positive rapper” Omekongo Dibinga, who inspired us:
Knowledge is power,
Ignorance is bliss
I will do what I can,
To end this crisis.
He decried the media that seems to only be able to pay attention to one conflict per decade. He reminded us of the history of our activism against the exploitation of the Congo to Mark Twain and W.E.B. DuBois who spoke out on the issue of rubber exploitations. He encouraged us to take actions, such as to have a cell-out, where we turn our cellphones off for a day but leave a message explaining that we do this to bring their attention to issue of conflict minerals in Congo. As he put it “We are Consuming Congo”. The second speaker was a Congolese woman talking about sexual violence there, but people were too loud eating lunch to follow what she said. The final speaker was John Prendergast (!), who urged us to take action by 1) pressuring Congress, 2) Demanding conflict free products form major electronic companies like Apple (go to raisehopeforcongo.org) and 3) push for our schools to call for conflict free products. He reminded us that in a decade or so, we reversed the effects of “blood diamonds” in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Angola and we can do the same in Congo. We need to get more active on Congo!

After this we took a walk – to the Capitol then down the mall to the National Archives and back – too long a line there, so we stopped at the National Gallery East Wing. We came back to a session on Global Advocacy in Sudan. Again, I left feeling pretty depressed on what will happen in 2011 especially.



We then walked to Union Station, and went to the food court there for dinner – my favorite food court anywhere – dozens of local vendors, no chains. We then came back for one more session on video advocacy, which was outstanding. Gave us some great ideas on producing a video to advocate and pressure our legislators – remember to focus on goal, message, messengers. Examples at 350.org, videoforchange.wordpress.com.
Also do a search on youtube for “Walldemart” – a hilarious Harry Potter spoof.

Back up to our rooms around 8, I gave them (and me) the rest of the evening to relax and go to bed early – 10:00 curfew. Back at it bright and early – breakfast at 8!