HHS STAND DC Trip '13 - Day 3

Our last day in DC. We again got up early to head to the Silver Diner for breakfast before the conference, today with a special treat. Yesterday at the conference, I got a chance to talk to Carl Wilkens, one of my heroes, who is a major leader in the anti-genocide movement famous for being the only American to stay in Kigali, Rwanda during the genocide where he was able to shelter hundreds of orphans from the killings. We got to chatting about the national STAND movement, for which he is a new Board member. He agreed to meet us for breakfast to discuss the state to STAND today, from our perspective. It was an honor and a treat to spend an hour talking with him over omelets and pancakes. From there, we headed to Day 2 of the conference, again featuring expert panels on Sudan, including an interesting discussion on media coverage, and a talk featuring John Prendergast, head of the Enough Project, and Rich Williamson, former special envoy to Sudan under Pres. Bush. It was clear that national activists have been disappointed with Pres. Obama's lack of engagement on Sudan, and that we made more of a positive difference under Bush, esp. with Williamson. Mukesh Kapila was inspiring in his appeal to the urgency of the problem, and our highlight may have been Carl Wilkens closing speech - a dramatic connection of his experience with the importance of what we are working on with Sudan. As he emphasized, don't underestimate the power of a story. After lunch, we headed to Capitol Hill for some lobbying. The conference had prepared packets and talking points for us, and joining with a couple members of the Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur, we gave presentations to foreign policy staffers in Rep. Markey's and Sen. Warren's offices, and did drop bys at Rep. Keating's and Rep. Kennedy's offices. It was a great experience and the students learned to be effective advocates - ad libbing to enhance the presentations. We also got some instant results as we received an email from Rep. Markey's office informing us that he joined the Sudan Caucus! Because of a flight delay, we had time to visit the Museum of the American Indian, spend a little time at Union Station, then catch a train to the airport. It was a wonderful trip, even if we didn't get home until 1AM!

HHS STAND DC Trip '13 - Day 2

Sunday, we got up early, and left the hotel at 645 (545 by yesterday's time) to walk up Wilson Boulevard to Clarendon Square. After a wonderful breakfast at the Silver Diner, we walked over to George Mason University (Arlington Campus) which was hosting the summit. We registered and after a few words of greeting, we broke up into five groups for the first three breakout sessions. The first two allowed us to listen to presentations from a variety of Sudanese attending the summit - giving us direct accounts of the atrocities being committed in Darfur, Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile, and other regions. They clearly described the current approach of the Bashir regime to divide and destroy the marginalized peoples of Sudan - predominantly African peoples being oppressed by the Arabized central government. One of the most fascinating parts was the question period of each presentation which precipitated discussions among the Sudanese of various backgrounds. The summit really feels like part of a process of helping the marginalized peoples of Sudan come together to resist the brutal policies of Bashir. [Hannah and Bianca with Bahar Arabie - check out his book on Darfur] The last breakout session covered topics such as social media, lobbying, and arresting Bashir. After lunch, we met in the auditorium for a series of expert panels. The first may have been the most fascinating as representatives of four resistance organizations in Sudan discussed their experiences and strategies - these are the folks who are on the front lines literally of the struggle. After a couple panels, we walked back down Wilson Blvd to the Hyatt, and after some pizza, got picked up by our Royal Tour bus for the night monument tour. We were lucky to have picked the nicest evening of the year so far - they lifted the sides on the bus - at least for the first half of the tour. We got to see the White House, the FDR memorial, Lincoln, Korea, Vietnam, Iwo Jima. The highlight for me was my first visit to the MLK Memorial.

HHS STAND DC Trip '13 - Day 1

HHS STAND embarked on a trip to DC for March 9-11, 2013. After getting up early (~4am) to catch a 7am flight from Boston, we made it to the Hyatt Arlington by 9:45, and started our trek through DC. Our path started at the Iwo Jima Marine Memorial and then through Arlington National Cemetary, crossing the Potomac to the Lincoln Memorial and a walk up to the Washington Monument. We spent a couple hours visiting the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and then walked the mall to take a tour of the Capitol. [new statue of Rosa Parks, sitting on Lee's spot on the old House floor, staring down a statue of Jefferson Davis across the room] After a ride back to Arlington on the Metro and dinner at Ruby Tuesday, we had a discussion about Sudan and the conference and got to bed early, ready to lose an hour of sleep to daylight savings time.