international salon- june

I brought a vase of gardenias to the discussion on the genocide in Darfur led by David Johnson last night. What does one bring-- let alone wear-- to a Saturday evening discussion on ethnic cleansing? Emily Post was no help.

Joking aside, I'm behind of learning, but at one level it seems so flippant. Maybe, I'm the flippant one. A human's capacity to suffer and do evil and good overwhelms me. All of our verbal manuevers and euphemisms for evil irk me. "Genocide" and "ethnic cleansing" would survive the censorship of a Victorian Parlor. Am I so far removed from death by my culture of medicine, hospitals and technology that I consider death as entertainment and abstraction?

After asking stupid questions, I still don't understand the motivation of the killing. Perhaps, looking for logic in this situation isn't the best strategy.

I remember in tenth grade researching and reading for the Security Council on Model UN. I remember sitting at my desk in West Dorm crying over the articles and statistics, being unable to articulate why I was crying to a friend. The malnousishment statistics for African children: girls were even more underfed than the boys. The mothers chose to feed their sons more than their daughters. I remember reading about rape as a war strategy. Life is grotesque. Last night, I looked at the subjects of David's pictures and saw women with dignity and joy instead of defeated victims.

I think it was Thomas Merton or Ravi Zacharias who said that we pose the question of evil incorrectly: it's not "where is God in this situation" but "where am I in this situation".

Before going, I chatted with the chief about it. She listened patiently and then asked why discuss the injustice in Darfur when their is plenty of injustice to be dealt with here. It's a valid question. After last night, it's not as if I'm empowered to somehow help the men, women and children being targeted. Yet, there's bound to be some efficacy in learning about the people even if I don't understand it. I guess it falls under "the communion of the saints" banner in the Apostles' Creed.