Trip to LA

While in Los Angeles, we discovered vast amounts of information I had not known the day earlier. I feel it was a very productive day considering all the things we explored were teaching us about something that affected our world in the past, what is going on currently, and what we could do to make our world more eco friendly. My favorite thing of the day was the Darfur discussion with Don Cheadle and John Prendergast. What amazed me the most was the amount of people that attended the talk, and how enthusiastic the crowd and speakers were. To know that that many people were enthusiastic and informed made me almost feel comforted because of the fact that people actually do know about this, and are wanting and willing to do something about it, even if it means contributing by attending a talk. I only wish that the people in Darfur will feel the same comfort I did during the community conversation soon enough. The first step of action is to inform society about the problem, and then go in and contribute your hands physically. To know that people like Cheadle and Prendergast (such high figures when it comes to the media) were physically going in and doing whatever they could to cease the madness. One thing that really got me was when Cheadle was talking about the woman he encountered that threw a mattress at him, and asked him if he was actually going to do something instead of committing to plans but never finishing them. He said that this was the time when he realized that he cant be one of those people that half-ass their commitments and was given a harsh awakening. This made me think about Bush's stand on Darfur, and his proposal that was made 2 years after we claimed it as genocide. To me it seems like this was a perfect example of a delayed reaction to something that can't afford wasted time. I realized that if our class had not researched more about Darfur in the previous week, I would have not understood more than half of what was discussed.