Not On Our Watch, Chapters 4-6

“If every member of the House and Senate has received 100 letters from people back home saying we have to do something about Rwanda, when the crisis was first developing, then the response would have been different.” –Senator Paul Simon 1994 (Page 86)

When i read this i was in utter shock. I thought this was one of the most insensitive quotes I have ever read. If it takes such a small number of letters to make someone stop 800,000 people from being slaughtered then that person shouldn't be in government. If it takes any amount of letters to make someone want to stop such a bloodbath then they shouldn't have the power to do so. Since they didn't get the 100 letters they just sat back and watched the horror in Rwanda unfold. Who knows maybe this same game is happening now in our government about Darfur. Maybe since its not as abrupt as the Rwandan genocide they are going to make it 10,000 letters before they attempt to stop it.

In chapter four it was really all about the history of darfur and how it lead up to genocide. it was mostly all fact and not very much opinion. Chapter four was hard to stay with since we have heard the Darfur genocide story without an ending so many times. Chapter five talks about why the United States is not getting involved affairs. They had a "Top Ten United States Excuse List". Chapter six was interesting because it gave you situations where activism was successful, it sadly does only give the good and not the times where activism attempts did not work.

Not On Our Watch, Chap 1-3

In chapter two one quote stuck out to me. When he was asked on page 31 "Being an activist for Africa is no small thing. Are you sure you are ready?" and he responded "No, i wasn't ready, and i wasn't one..."
I thought its was pretty bad that he said this, i completely consider him an activist, how much effort they are able to put in to Darfur is an amazing amount. It kind of looked like he didn't want to be called an activist just because hes a celebrity, and he has the connections to be able to get on a plain with a congressman and fly to Darfur. If he was anybody else then he would never be able to go to Darfur. That is really the only information that stood out to me. The rest of chapter one and two were pretty good because they explain their views in an odd way of writing. Several times in this book they push that they are not doing this because they are celebrities. Then chapter three was basically what we have heard several times in class. It was about Darfur, and how the genocide was sparked to get to the fire its at today.