Then Jane Lute, the Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations for Peacekeeping Operations, said something which stood out above the other, at times overly political, rhetoric and reminded me why we all need to continue fighting for the people of Darfur in every way we know how.  The numbers can be staggering and the concept of the problem can be hard to articulate but, she explained, “people die one at a time.”

The phrase brought me back to my family’s Passover seder this past weekend where each participant, as an individual, was asked to place him or herself in the narrative of affliction of the Jewish people.  It is hard not to think that another story of affliction is unfolding right in front of us.  While 300,000 dead and 2.5 million displaced may seem like just numbers -- these people die one at a time.

I don’t pretend to know how to solve the problem.  In fact, as Mark Pelavin pointed out on our own RAC Blog drawing on a piece in Slate from Shmuel Rosner, the “Save Darfur” movement has accomplished all of its goals except the most important: ending the conflict. However, many have identified new, positive steps we can take to end the conflict now. On the pages of the New York Times Nicholas Kristof and Mark Helperin have put forward ideas.  So have advocacy groups like the ENOUGH project.  So instead of pointing fingers and playing the political blame game as to why we haven’t ended the genocide, let’s push for strategies that can help end the conflict in Darfur once and for all.