Lighting the Torch: Cincinnati Implores China to Bring Darfur Peace
| By Homa - Oct 30th, 2007 at 2:53 pm EDT |
| Also listed in: African Americans for Action in Darfur | Greater Cincinnati Advocates for Darfur |
Mica Darley
October 11, 2007
The ceremony, sponsored by the 170 nonprofit and religious organizations of the Save Darfur Coalition, will feature the lighting of an Olympic torch that will be passed from hand to hand by survivors of genocides in Darfur, Rwanda, Cambodia, the Jewish Holocaust. The torch will move all around the U.S. and eventually travel to China in December to dramatize Beijing's complicity in the horror of Darfur.
On October 11th, amidst the grey of a clouded afternoon, University of Cincinnati's Sigma Sigma Commons brimmed with the light of Olympic hopefuls - that is, citizens beseeching China to bring its Olympic spirit to Darfur. They called for China's crucial support in pressuring the Sudanese government to end Darfur's genocide.
Beneath the symbolic torch of UC'S Ronald Walker light tower, and around the buzzing crowd of students, faculty, and community activists who filled the Commons green, some of Cincinnati's most respected citizens ran a torch relay to demand China's divestment in genocide. Participants included Nick Clooney, renowned journalist and Darfur advocate; Henry Fenichel, Holocaust survivor; Dr. Mitchell Livingston, UC Vice-President; Leah Peelman, winner of the 2007 Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon; Mary Wineburg, 400 meter runner-in-training for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games; Billy Hatcher, Cincinnati Reds first-base coach and member of the Reds' 1990 World Series team; Rabbi Ingber of the Cincinnati Imwise Temple; Father Hert of UC; Zeinab Schwen, president of the Cincinnati Council on American-Islamic Relations; Tony Schrietz, co-chair of Greater Cincinnati Advocates for Darfur, representing the Archdiocese of Cincinnati; and Homa Yavar, co-chair of GCAFD, representing Muslim Mothers Against Violence and the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati.
Following the relay, Clooney spoke of the need for sustained demands for U.N. protection of Darfur's people. Yavar led the rallied crowd in inter-faith prayer for protection, patience, and perseverance in Darfur, where human rights violations continue without abatement. Well into the prayer, emotion seemed to overcome her; she was silent for several moments.
And in this broken space the crowd, gathered to proclaim that humanity's noblest tradition should not broker injustice, fell silent too. All people of any and all religious persuasion and who believe in justice must gather up our moral courage and recognize that genocide has occurred, is occurring and can only abate when we look such evil in the face and say never again. This we will do in our homes, in our places of worship, in our workplaces, and in the halls of government, wherever we are, even as we hope for a better world….
October 11, 2007
The ceremony, sponsored by the 170 nonprofit and religious organizations of the Save Darfur Coalition, will feature the lighting of an Olympic torch that will be passed from hand to hand by survivors of genocides in Darfur, Rwanda, Cambodia, the Jewish Holocaust. The torch will move all around the U.S. and eventually travel to China in December to dramatize Beijing's complicity in the horror of Darfur.
On October 11th, amidst the grey of a clouded afternoon, University of Cincinnati's Sigma Sigma Commons brimmed with the light of Olympic hopefuls - that is, citizens beseeching China to bring its Olympic spirit to Darfur. They called for China's crucial support in pressuring the Sudanese government to end Darfur's genocide.
Beneath the symbolic torch of UC'S Ronald Walker light tower, and around the buzzing crowd of students, faculty, and community activists who filled the Commons green, some of Cincinnati's most respected citizens ran a torch relay to demand China's divestment in genocide. Participants included Nick Clooney, renowned journalist and Darfur advocate; Henry Fenichel, Holocaust survivor; Dr. Mitchell Livingston, UC Vice-President; Leah Peelman, winner of the 2007 Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon; Mary Wineburg, 400 meter runner-in-training for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games; Billy Hatcher, Cincinnati Reds first-base coach and member of the Reds' 1990 World Series team; Rabbi Ingber of the Cincinnati Imwise Temple; Father Hert of UC; Zeinab Schwen, president of the Cincinnati Council on American-Islamic Relations; Tony Schrietz, co-chair of Greater Cincinnati Advocates for Darfur, representing the Archdiocese of Cincinnati; and Homa Yavar, co-chair of GCAFD, representing Muslim Mothers Against Violence and the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati.
Following the relay, Clooney spoke of the need for sustained demands for U.N. protection of Darfur's people. Yavar led the rallied crowd in inter-faith prayer for protection, patience, and perseverance in Darfur, where human rights violations continue without abatement. Well into the prayer, emotion seemed to overcome her; she was silent for several moments.
And in this broken space the crowd, gathered to proclaim that humanity's noblest tradition should not broker injustice, fell silent too. All people of any and all religious persuasion and who believe in justice must gather up our moral courage and recognize that genocide has occurred, is occurring and can only abate when we look such evil in the face and say never again. This we will do in our homes, in our places of worship, in our workplaces, and in the halls of government, wherever we are, even as we hope for a better world….
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