Priorities seem misplaced

First there was the holocaust, where the leaders of our country swore that “never again” would they allow another genocide to take place. Since those horrifying years there are have been a multiple number of genocides, from Cambodia to Rwanda. And again, the leaders of our world have said “never again.”

Well, now it is happening — again.

Do any of the residents in my beautiful state of Alaska have any idea about the genocide taking place in the region of Darfur? The 2.5 million people who have been forced out of their homes, the 10,000 and rising number of gang rapes on the innocent women, the 400,000 and counting men, women and children who have been murdered. There are only 11 members of the group SaveDarfur in Anchorage and one in our capital. I truly believe it is due to the lack of awareness. But now you know, and now there are no more excuses.

In 2007, the Iraq war has cost roughly $11 million dollars an hour, with millions and millions of those dollars being given to private companies like Halliburton, KBR, CACI and Blackwater. We taxpayers are paying these civilian contractors hundreds of thousands of dollars to do anything from sit behind desks and call out, “Computer No. 3, your time is up,” to pull security on high-ranking officials. Every one of these contractors replaces a soldier and makes four times more than that soldier. We are supporting this.

In 2006, three years after the genocide started in Sudan, the World Food Program told leading nations that Sudan needed at least $746 million to keep the people from starving to death. The United States could only afford to give some $200 million while the European Union and United Kingdom combined gave roughly $150 million, leaving thousands and thousands of people to die.

Why? Is anyone else asking this question?

What are those of you in power for our state using my voice and the voice of our people doing about all of these problems?

I am not writing this out of only passion and anger. No, this is a letter out of shame; shame for the state I have always sworn by and shame for the country I fought for. We need to open our eyes and quit hiding behind a cloak of ignorance.

If every person who reads this letter were to tell at least one person about what is happening in Darfur and take 15 minutes out of your day to write one letter and send it to our three representatives in Congress and our president, I believe there will be a change. This is a democratic society, and we, the people, can make a change.

Bob Stark

Seward