Road cleanup designed to raise awareness of genocide in Darfur

Ask Me About Darfur stickers and genocide-awareness shirts were worn by members of the Committee on Conscience-New Jersey organization on Saturday, Oct. 7, as 24 children, teens and adults took part in the East Brunswick Sponsor-A-Road program. The goal was to raise awareness about the genocide occurring in the Darfur region of Sudan. The participants volunteered to pick up trash along Summerhill Road, while hoping to draw attention to their cause as people drove past.

The program began with the reading of a statement made by Gen. Romeo Dallaire, head of the U.N. forces in Rwanda during the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Gen. Dallaire stated: "We have entered a millennium where in fact humanity, the human race, is to become the dominant factor, not the self-interest. A 3-year-old kid in Rwanda who was grimy, who was dirty, who was sick, flies all over him, that 3-year-old is exactly the same as my 3-year-old. That level of consideration of human life, raising these countries to that level, out of the self-interest level is, I believe, an achievable objective in the centuries to come."

Joseph Butrica of the East Brunswick Recycling Department provided the committee with bright orange vests, trash bags and oversized gloves. Young and old crawled into the bushes, pulling out an assortment of bottles, cans, newspapers and other discarded items.

During the cleanup, thoughts were on the plight of the Darfuri people. Blue bags were reminders of the blue U.N. tarps used as tents by people living in camps. Abandoned garbage was both a reminder of the international community's abandonment of its responsibility to end a genocide and the subhuman ways in which these victims of genocide have been treated. The activity served to underscore the obvious but forgotten distinction - garbage can be recycled, human lives cannot.

When you drive down Summerhill Road, think of the Committee on Conscience-NJ. If you didn't get a chance to "Ask Me About Darfur," then visit the Web site at http://CoC-NJ.home.

Comcast.net. It points you to online videos, audios and photo essays that clearly explain the situation in Darfur.

Leslie B. Klein

Stephanie K. Stern

East Brunswick