Mr. President, What About Sudan?

by Laura Heaton · 2010-01-31 07:22:00 UTC
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Barack ObamaPost-State of the Union frustration among anti-genocide activists was palpable. Certainly, A glimpse at the #genprev (short for genocide prevention) hashtag on Twitter gives a sense of the expectations leading up to President Obama’s speech and the disappointment at the realization that, if anything, Sudan might just get a passing mention when the president shifted from domestic issues to foreign policy … and then, no, not even then.

But I agreed with Michelle’s sentiment post-SOTU: Since there is so often a discrepancy between politicians’ public pronouncements and their actions, why do we still hold their verbal commitments in such high esteem and feel surprised by the lack of follow through? More importantly, what can we do to compel them to actually live up to their commitments?

Now is our chance. Genocide prevention may not have been the main event on Wednesday night, but we have the opportunity to ask President Obama a follow-up question live on YouTube and demand a meaningful answer – not just a passing mention.

We’ve heard from the president’s surrogates about the new U.S. policy on Sudan, but we’re eager to hear directly from President Obama about how he assesses progress on the ground under his watch, and what he plans to do in this year of milestones in Sudan to prevent widespread violence. (In a nutshell: the first multi-party national elections in 24 years, and a referendum on southern Sudan’s independence in January 2011 are two powder kegs; violence is increasing in the South, with the UN recording 2,500 deaths last year; and three million Darfuris are still displaced due to insecurity).

CitizenTube is collecting questions, and we’ve submitted ours:

Between now and tonight at 8:00PM, the public can vote to choose which questions President Obama will address on YouTube. Questions started pouring in as soon as the State of the Union ended, so we need your help to vote our Sudan question to the top.

Vote here, and please spread the word.

Photo credit: The White House

Laura Heaton is the writer/editor of the blog Enough Said at the Enough Project, a campaign of the Center for American Progress.
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