Today marks the 25th day of Obama’s presidency. As we all know, President Obama and his administration face an enormous array of challenges. The administration is dealing with a major economic crisis, two wars, and an increasingly dangerous world. In this kind of environment, it’d be easy for Obama to do very little on Darfur.
But I don’t think that’s going to happen, and it’s because of what I’ve seen STAND activists do this week.
When the STAND Managing Committee was first discussing a Round the Clock Call In, we thought it was a good idea, but we weren’t sure it would work. A call every minute is no small feat, after all. At first, we tried to make it easier – "what about a call every five minutes, or every two?"
Turns out, it didn’t need to be any easier. Over the past two weeks, you have mobilized your chapters and your campuses, asked your friends and families to make calls, and worked as hard as you could to make sure that Secretary Clinton’s phones ring all day long.
And they will. 480 people have signed up to make calls, one for each minute of the business day. And that’s not all – since the slots filled up, we’ve received tons of e-mails from students telling us that they couldn’t sign up but they’d still be calling anyway.
So, today, the State Department’s phones will literally be ringing off the hook – all day long. And that might just get President Obama and Secretary Clinton to appoint an envoy.
But if not, we’ll keep trying. Because if this week showed us anything about the student anti-genocide movement, it’s that we’re in it for the long haul, and hard work doesn’t scare us. We’ll make the calls, even though we’ve made them before. We’ll spread the word, even though we wish everyone already understood. We’ll write letters, come together at conferences and retreats, and tell everyone we know that the world must do more.
Happy Day 25.