The Genocide in Darfur Must End Now. VOTE.

(I'm running on about 5 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours---literally---and still can't seem to shake an epic bout of insomnia, so you'll have to forgive anything that more incoherent/ranty than usual.)

As you may or may not be aware, Change.org is in the midst of its Ideas for Changing America campaign, and will present the top ten ideas, as voted on by you, to the Obama transition team next week. This list, in my view, represents our---and that's the royal "our"---priorities for the new administration, our list of the most urgent and pressing needs and issues, in the country and abroad, that Obama and his team must address immediately once in office.

The End the Genocide in Darfur submission is no where near the top ten at the moment, and this makes me more than a little concerned. Don't get me wrong---there are many, many great ideas. And I know I'm biased.

But here's the thing: Hundreds of thousands of people have died at the hands of a brutal regime concerned only with maintaining its own despotic grip on power, and millions more continue to hang in the balance as the government threatens further retribution. These are civilians---men, women, children, families, who live and die at the whim of a lousy band of war criminals in Khartoum.

This is genocide---a government deciding to systematically eradicate an entire population from the face of the planet. It reeks of arrogance and of evil, and by not ending it, we become complicit.

And this isn't just about Darfur. This is about the Holocaust, it is about Armenia, it is about Cambodia, Bosnia, and Rwanda---about all of the times we've expressed horror and outrage over senseless mass slaughter, but seemed content to sit quietly with our righteous indignation, shake our heads, and do nothing. This is about the present, and it is about the future---about finally matching our professed ideals with a sense of urgency, and the will and the courage to take the risks necessary to end the most horrific act known to mankind.

This is about restoring our country's moral standing in the world, after watching it torn to shreds, and then stomped on and burned and rolled over again, over the last eight years. This is about finally putting our money where our mouth is, rectifying a blight on humanity that has been allowed to continue for too long already, and setting a precedent for the future that warns the world that, no, we will not tolerate this kind of abuse by a government against its people.

It's about using our powerful voice to be the voice for the powerless.

This genocide is happening now. It needs to end yesterday.

VOTE to end the genocide in Darfur.

(And please spread the word--on your blog, via email, Facebook, Twitter, whatever.)