Gov. Corzine urging students into Darfur Action

by: Jay Lassiter

Tue May 02, 2006 at 01:55:42 PM EDT

Gov. Corzine was in South Jersey yesterday speaking to students about genocide in the Darfur region of the Sudan. Haddonfield High senior and activist Sean Spencer invited the Governor to address the S.T.A.N.D.(students taking action now, Darfur) chapter at Haddonfield High School. And the Governor obliged, engaging with the students for several hours, which included a lenthy question and answer session.

Said Corzine, "It's so important to understand that doing nothing is wrong. Keep raising Cain with folks like me."

Jay Lassiter :: Gov. Corzine urging students into Darfur Action

Courier Post:

The governor conceded it was tough for New Jersey to have a foreign policy, but the Garden State is among the leaders of a nationwide effort to divest from companies doing business in the central African nation.
The state has divested $500 million worth of investments in companies doing business there so far and expects to be completely divested in three years if ethnic strife continues in Sudan, Corzine said.
Spencer said he reached the governor through a friend and worked for five months to bring him to town to talk about Darfur.
The group built a makeshift shelter out of sticks and plastic grocery bags on the front lawn of the school to dramatize the plight of Sudanese refugees.

Sean Spencer: "Darfur is so far away, you can only see pictures and video and it's really hard to get a sense of what's going on... That's why we built it, so we can see what people have to live in. It's a lot more powerful that way."

Indeed. I drove the 2 miles to the school to see the sticks-n-bag hut the students had cobbled together and I must say that it was rather evocative. Especially compared to it's tony surroundings. Let's face it, Haddonfield is about the cutest damn township in the world and to see an 8 foot tall Sudanese hut right in the middle of the schoolyard made for quite the quxtaposition. As soon as I can figure out this new camera, I'll post some pics.

The bad news is that the killing in the Sudan continues. The good news is that there is a fresh new breed of young activists cutting their teeth while fighting genocide. The bad news is that the killing in the Sudan continues.