What matters to me? Well I could tell you a million things that do matter to me: My friends, my family, my school work, my sports, my fine arts. I could write a whole essay telling you how important these things are to me but I am going to change gears for a moment. Something that I find myself very passionate about, and don’t really know why, is the unspeakable genocide the continues to shock nations in Darfur Sudan.

About a month ago in social studies, we were learning about World War II and the Holocaust. To illustrate the horrors of war and genocide, my teacher showed us the movie, The Devil Came On Horseback, which depicts the suffering and madness in the Southern region of Darfur, Sudan. I watched intently as the idea of my perfect world fell to pieces. How could someone let this happen? Was the question that ran over and over in my head. I couldn’t believe that I breathed the same air as these people, the biggest dilemma I’ve ever run into was getting below 50 on a test and these people fought for their lives ever day just because they were African? Then the movie ended and we had a class discussion, during which I found out that this problem, this genocide was still continuing. Right then, as most of my classmates were counting down the minutes until lunch time, people in Darfur were being brutally and savagely killed for no apparent reason.

Now before I get ahead of myself I will lay down some facts for those of you who are sitting there wondering what in the world I am talking about. The Darfur Crisis is taking place in Darfur, Sudan. It is a massive conflict between the Janjaweed, a Arab militia group, and the black African tribes all over the southern region of Darfur. Basically, the Janjaweed are attacking the black African tribes. Why you may ask,? Because they are not Arabs. First they bomb an African village. Then they send in hundreds of Janjaweed soldiers to rape, pillage and viciously torture any survivors.

Imagine yourself sitting at home with your family eating dinner. Then all of a sudden you hear a horrendous explosion. You hear screaming and crying from your neighborhood streets, you look out the window and see corpses burnt alive and your neighbors and friends suffering. You try to cry for help but nothing will help you . This is what people living in Darfur go through. Just because of the color of their skin, the things they believe.

The worst part about this whole ordeal is that it continues. People have been informed of this situation and no one has done anything since it started in February of 2003, that’s almost 5 years of people losing their parents, their brothers, their sisters, their friends. In the words of John Lennon “Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.” So go ahead, after you read this essay, go home and watch American Idol on TV, get in fights with people over silly meaningless things like whose got the best car or whose a better rapper, Kayne or Fiddy. Or you could think, you could do something. Even the smallest thing would make a different.

Live is an adventure. What have I discovered? Well its hard to tell really. I’ve discovered quite a bit. I’ve discovered love, hate, trust, ambition, generosity the list goes on and on. But think, the reason that this matter is so important to me is because I have discovered quite possible the meaning of my life: to make a difference. I know, that I am not the ideal candidate to be preaching to anyone on this topic because I do watch American Idol, and I do argue over stupid little things that do not matter. But I also know what does matter. Other people, the human race matters to me and it should to everyone else too. This problem matters to me because it can be fixed and we can help, we can make a difference. I know that if I can make a difference by just writing this essay and making people listening and making them live with their eyes open then in a very small way, I am helping the human race.