2.5 million people have been driven from their homes in Darfur, Sudan. Each day, they face threats that should not be hard for us to imagine – including rape, disease, and starvation; though, if you are like me, you prefer not to imagine them.

These are people. They need our help to put an end to the genocide and they need it NOW. That they are people, in the sense that my friends and family are people, is another concept my brain wants to ignore. They don’t look like us, or dress like us, or let us take the right-of-way at an intersection. They don’t live in cities like us, or talk about the stock market or literature. Isn’t it easier to turn away from their deaths, by the thousands, than it would be if they were Americans?

Well, I believe God loves them each and every one just the same as He loves me. And my weak-minded willingness to tolerate their suffering is pitiful and irrelevant. So please join me in taking the first step in stopping the violence.

Use this link to sign the Save Darfur Coalition’s petition urging President Bush and the UN Secretary-General to take immediate steps to stop the killing. Maybe we can make a difference in the lives of millions of people in the region who desperately need our help.

The Save Darfur Coalition is urging the international community to prevent further killings, displacement, and rape by deploying the UN peacekeeping force that has already been authorized, strengthen the understaffed African Union force that is already in Darfur, establish a no-fly zone, increase humanitarian aid, and ensure access for delivery of food, medication and other essential supplies.