2 of 7

It is in the long term … that the genocide's perpetrators will have their true victory: They have not only killed individuals, but also destroyed an entire way of life. Attackers have targeted men and boys; this will make it particularly difficult for traditionally male-led farming communities to reconstitute themselves. Moreover, children who come of age during the genocide will not have learned the agricultural skills necessary for survival in this unforgiving land. As a result, agricultural life in Darfur will be seriously compromised for the foreseeable future.

And, if those communities cannot reconstitute themselves, even after the killing has ended—then what? Boys, seething with anger at what they have suffered, are ripe for recruitment into Darfur's insurgency movements. … A decade from now, the larger [refugee] camps will almost certainly still exist in some form. They will likely become ghastly suburbs; this, at any rate, is what happened to the camps around Khartoum, where hundreds of thousands of southern Sudanese—displaced by decades of civil war—have more or less given up on the chance of returning to their homes. It will be a long time before life in Darfur returns to normal—if it ever does.

3. Judge throws out Christian frat's UNC suit
What's unclear from news reports is why the case was still going forward. Alpha Iota Omega members sued the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2004 after they were required to sign the school's nondiscrimination policy. In March 2005, UNC changed its policy, granting recognition to "student organizations that select their members on the basis of commitment to a set of beliefs." The Alliance Defense Fund told The News & Observer that it was disappointed that the case had been dismissed, but didn't say why. Is it not enough for the school to change its policy? Must we also have a judge saying that it had to, even though the point is moot?

4. Blast those foreigners!
Doug Mendenhall has an interesting take on the immigration debate in his Huntsville Times column:

The great melting pot is lumpy. It threatens to boil over. America has a problem. Millions upon millions of people in this country do not really belong here.

They are not true citizens in the sense that their primary allegiance is not to the red, white and blue.

They act as if this country's laws are not the final authority in their lives.

They have their own culture, and if America tries to get them to give it up and embrace something more palatable to the rest of its people, they buck and resist as if they are the injured party.

They act as if they share more camaraderie with people in far-off lands than with other Americans. They're always leaving on jaunts to those other countries. Or sending off every U.S. dollar they can squeeze out of their wallets to make life better for those foreigners they love so much.

Many in these United States believe it won't be long until the nation rises up and tosses out these irritating millions, or at least tells them collectively to shut up and keep their weird ways to themselves.

next page... |  2 of 7

share this page

May (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50