by David Cook
posted March 12, 2008
 David Cook |
When the mass graves were uncovered at the end of World War II and the images of genocide broadcast to the far ends of the earth, the people of the world shuddered and promised one thing: never again.
Never again will we allow this horror, the horror of gas chambers, the nightmare of the death walk, the starvation of concentration, the evil of infanticide, the unthinkable stories: Jewish babies tossed into the air and shot like skeet; men so thin you could touch their spine through their stomach; the banality of evil that comes, as Hannah Arendt said, when men pledge obedience to a nation instead of their conscience.
The world swore never to allow it again.
Yet it has happened again, and is happening right now. Today.
In Sudan, the terroristic government led by Omar Al-Bashir has been waging a death march against its own people for the last four years, sponsoring the Klan-like night riders known as the Janjaweed. Hundreds of thousands dead. Millions displaced into the collapsing nations nearby. Suffering so vast as to be unimaginable. Therefore, let one story serve as a symbol for millions.
A woman named Mary was abducted by the Janjaweed and forced into a life of sexual slavery. She became a mother of many sons, but it was not until the birth of her baby daughter that she realized the full tragedy of her own life. Not wanting her own daughter to inherit such sadness, one night, under the moon, she ran away, clutching her infants and children as fast as she could into the bush wilderness.
Hours later, she thought she was safe. And then she heard the hooves.
The Janjaweed surrounded her and into the bush where she was hiding, they tossed torches. Mary watched as her children were burned alive in her arms. She woke up hours later (perhaps a miracle, perhaps she'd rather be dead) and then had to dig in the dry earth with her fingers to bury her children by hand.
This is one story of millions. And the state of Tennessee has the opportunity to stop these stories from continuing.
Divestment is a term that describes the economic process of a group washing clean its investments. The Sudanese government, sitting on much oil, is partially propped up by foreign investors, including the human rights violating, Olympic Game-hosting nation of China. Yet our hands are dirty as well, for much of our investments are tied into the companies that support the genocide-waging Sudanese government.
So to divest is to purge all companies from your investments that are connected to the genocide in Sudan.
Currently, twenty-two state governments have already passed legislation that divests their holdings from companies doing business in Sudan.
There is a bill in the Tennessee government that would add our great state to this great list. Senate Bill 3161 is sponsored by Senator Tim Burchett and Beverly Marrero and is similar to the House Bill 2951 sponsored by Gerald McCormick. Both bills would require public funds (pension funds) to sell their holdings in 22 companies that fund the genocide, and prohibit funds from buying stock in those corporations.
By passing this legislation, the state of Tennessee can act morally and ethically, knowing that it is taking steps to honor the victims of past holocausts by working to stop one in progress. President Bush recently signed a similar Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act for the federal government.
"By targeting a limited number of firms and types of investments Senate Bill 3161 protects Tennessee's portfolio returns. Every state that has adopted this targeted divestment policy has found that it affects less than 0.3% of total assets,'' claims the Sudan Divestment Task Force. When Texas teachers voted to divest their investments, less than one percent of their funds were affected.
Critics of this bill claim it carries too much economic weight. The Treasurer's office is exaggerating the economic effects of this legislation by price-tagging divestment at one million dollars. This is not only an exaggeration, it is unbelievably immoral.
I would ask our state's elected officials to remember the story of the Jewish Holocaust, and perhaps the first time they saw the concentration camp photos. I would ask them to remember the story of Mary. I would ask them to envision twenty years from now, when their own grandchildren ask them what they did to stop the genocide in Darfur.
Will they have an answer?
Contact your state official today. Contact the Finance Ways and Means Committee heads: Randy McNally of the Senate can be reached at 615-741-6806. Andy Berke, Bo Watson and others can be reached at www.legislature.state.tn.us/
(David Cook is a former journalist for the Chattanooga Times-Free Press. He currently teaches American history at Girls Preparatory School and can be reached at dcook7@gmail.com)
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David, was it just an oversight or political correctness when you forgot to say that the Janjaweed Sudanese Muslims are executing and crucifying Christian men while raping and murdering the women and children?
Please, David, make sure you give the whole picture, truth and all. I am not against your story or your stand. Just want to make sure you don't give a false report about the "peaceful" Muslim religion of the Sudan.
Cliff Sarbel
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