Letter to the Editor 2, 10/9/08

Dear Editor, ‘ ‘ ‘ While looking through The Pitt News, I came across Giles Howard’s column,… Dear Editor, ‘ ‘ ‘ While looking through The Pitt News, I came across Giles Howard’s column, ‘STAND missing the full issue.’ The title bothered me, but I still continued to read. After finishing the article I was stunned, and then absolutely livid. Although I am not a member of STAND (mostly because of scheduling conflicts), I found the column insulting. Not once did the column mention the good that STAND does; instead, Howard mocked the organization, saying, ‘But college students need to feel important, need to show their peers that they care about Africans and need to express their constant dismay that people don’t care about what’s going on in an African country.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ I believe that the people who are in STAND and others who voice their concerns about Darfur are aware that they are not going to change the world. I also believe that at least they are trying. If everyone said, ‘I am going to do something, just don’t think that it is going to make a difference,’ then we would not have experienced some of the leaps and bounds in civil liberties all over the world. Will the painting of the tents outside the William Pitt Union change the course of the genocide? Probably not. But what raises awareness is something that we cannot over look. ‘ ‘ ‘ One thing I do agree with in the column is that people need to be more aware about the problems our own government is causing. But does that mean that Darfur is any less important? Does that mean that we should pay attention only to the blunders of our own government and not the rest of humanity? I think not. Jessica Lasley School of Arts and Sciences