Genocide

My senior year in high school I took a course entitled Facing History and Ourselves, in which we learned about all of the injustices that have plagued the history of the world. At the time, I was much more of an optimist, and still believed that politics and diplomacy could fix everything. I've now realized just how much it takes to get anything done, and how careful of a line politicians must walk. Though it is horrifying that there is still a genocide going on in Darfur, no one is doing anything. If America is to take the role of world hegemon when it comes to WMD or countries that we have economic or political interest in, it is not surprising that the world expects us to come to the rescue of others. But if America were to stretch itself even more thinly, we would not have anything left for domestic problems, and someone would always be complaining about something. And so, even though I am a member of STAND and a national organization against genocide, I find myself understanding where the politicians are coming from when they just sit behind their offices and do nothing. If we fix every problem in the world, there will be nothing left for us.