Some of you know me. My name is Mac Hamilton and I graduated from Harwich in 2009. I’m currently a sophomore at Smith College and have been involved in the anti-genocide movement since I was a sophomore here. I am the Advocacy Chair at SmithSTAND and STAND’s Northeast Regional Outreach Coordinator.
It’s hard to trace back to the point where I started caring about human rights. I’ve thought a lot about it and can trace it back to when I was in Miss Malcolm’s sixth grade English class. We read Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. The sheer simplicity of the writing mixed with the horrors experienced by a girl my own age shocked me, and I was so thankful that that period of time was over. Some of the injustices I could understand. As a woman, I am a minority and have faced difficulties and injustices, but nowhere near what Annemarie and Ellen faced during the Holocaust.
For those of you who know me, you know that I was very involved in theatre in high school. I did a lot of shows at the Harwich Junior Theatre, and it was in a class there that I first heard about anti-Semitism within the United States. A dear friend of mine, a beautiful redheaded 12-year-old girl, had been harassed at her middle school for being Jewish. The story was traumatizing. How could the book I’d read relate to my friend 60 years later? Someone had told her, “What is the difference between a Jew and a pizza? A pizza doesn’t scream when it’s put in the oven.” She told that story, sobbing, to a group of individuals in our class and as the tears dropped to the floor, my heart pounded and tears of my own appeared. Clearly, there was something more to human nature than I had known before.
Fast-forward to Ms. Whittemore’s—now Mrs. Hoffman’s—freshman English class. Reading The Diary of Anne Frank set the stage for me to join the newly formed STAND chapter the next year. I was in a theatre ensemble called In Good Company at the time and a friend of mine invited me to come to a Battle of the Bands at Harwich High. In between acts, students presented figures that I could barely comprehend. 400,000 killed. 2 million displaced. Violence and fear still running rampant. They told stories that, if I had not known my friend at HJT, and had I not read Number the Stars or The Diary of Anne Frank, I may not have believed, or may have downplayed.
I bought a t-shirt—“STOP GENOCIDE IN SUDAN” it commanded. From there, my actions grew. When I heard about a new law, I would call my senators and urge my parents to do the same. I thought that if I made one hundred calls and if that saved even one human life, lightened the burden of one girl like my friend at HJT, that it would be worth it. I was right. Through my activism, not only have I found an incredible family of human beings that value human life and dignity above all other things, but also I have found that the actions of one person does truly affect the lives of hundreds. Ruby’s life affecting mine has affected students across the United States and the global community in which we live.
Tomorrow, I’m leaving for the Netherlands. A country once torn apart by World War II and the genocide that went with it. A country that has transformed itself into a land of justice and a beacon of hope for genocide survivors and their descendants everywhere. I will walk the same streets as Anne Frank, my personal hero. The Netherlands is the site of the International Criminal Court, which currently is hosting Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former vice-president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo who has been charged with two counts of crimes against humanity and three counts of war crimes. It is also hosting Thomas Lubanga, who stands accused of the war crime of ‘conscripting and enlisting children under the age of fifteen years and using them to participate actively in hostilities.’
Every day, I wear this whistle. Contrary to the beliefs of the many who ask me why I wear it, it is not a rape whistle. In the Eastern Congo, there has been a war raging since 1998 that has resulted in the deaths of over 5 million people, much of this a spill over from the 1994 Rwandan genocide. When armies clash, they put young boys in the front line armed only with a whistle, which is supposed to scare the enemy away. These boys take the first round of bullets.
Now, while this is all extremely depressing and difficult to hear, there’s also so much hope. International outrage at these atrocities has grown in recent years, due in large part to outcries of activists in high schools and colleges across the United States. In this year alone, we have gotten the United States to publicly support a United Nations Security Council Commission of Inquiry into Crimes Against Humanity in Burma. The US supports putting in systems in Eastern Congo to monitor mines and ensure that our electronics are conflict free, and not funding the armies that are enlisting child soldiers and raping Congolese women. Barack Obama spoke on MTV in November about how the student movement has put the Sudan referendum on the administration’s radar. The appointment of Princeton Lyman after nationwide vigils in August of 2010, the appointment of Darfur envoy Dane Smith in December, and the passing of the first ever genocide prevention legislation all happened because of student activism.
There are good things that are happening, but there is also more to be done. The fact that civil war has not started in Sudan as of today, 5 days before the referendum, is incredible. But it’s also important to continue monitoring the conflict should our voices be needed. My only qualm about going to the Netherlands tomorrow is that I will not be in the United States to help mobilize people should violence occur as a result of the referendum. That’s where you come in. By going to http://bit.ly/pledge2protect and signing the letter to President Obama, you will also become part of the post-referendum rapid responder team. If things do end up going badly, we are going to need all of the voices we can get calling our senators and the administration, writing letters, and taking action. As high school students, you have a huge responsibility on January 9th. Most colleges will not yet be back in session. You will be the ones most able to mobilize your communities, talk to your friends and family, and use your voices.
You did so much incredible work in 2010: from hosting Gabriel Bol Deng to having your own STANDfast to questioning your candidates for accountability, you’ve let your voices be heard. And I know you can do the same in 2011.
I love you <3
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