Taking the Reins

This semester's volunteer work with Weber State STAND has been exceptional.  I've lobbied twice, participated in a hunger strike, and spoken at a banquet.  I've helped with movie screenings, Amnesty International events, and gone to a national conference in Washington D.C.

This semester has been a very successful one, but it also has a sad note.  Cameron Morgan, the student activist and great friend who started Weber State STAND from the ground up, has stepped down from his Presidential position.  He is stepping down because he has a lot of other work to move on to, and a lot of work to do in order to finish his degree.  His energy, passion, and optimism is what has made STAND what it is today- and that in my opinion is the most active volunteer group on campus.  He is passing on the Presidency to me, and now it is up to me to attempt to fill the void his absence will make.

I'm not going to pretend this isn't a difficult task- the work that Weber State STAND does is arduous and difficult.  It will put a lot of pressure on me to balance the job with my classes, work, and social life, but I believe I am ready for this task.  Cameron has set an excellent precedent and tradition for hard work and determination.  I fully intend to take those same qualities with me into my Presidency.  I would like to promise here that though I certainly won't be a flawless leader the one thing I can give with all my heart is my knowledge, dedication, and passion to this organization.  Cameron never gave it any less, and it deserves no less.

With this in mind, I would like to mention a few things for the future of STAND.  Next semester's events are not set in stone, but I do have an idea that I need to flesh out with Cameron, because it requires his help and information from his December trip to Kenya.  In addition to this, I would like to continue the STAND "Art of Peace" exhibit as well.  Beyond these ideas, I am going to try to organize events with organizations with interests and goals similar to STAND, so we can form a sort of group coalition to raise money together and double our manpower.  These are a few of my basic ideas, but I am definitely open to any other ideas, comments, or criticism, provided they are honest and constructive.

I am looking forward to the coming semester and all the ones ahead.  I know STAND will continue to be a powerful tool of advocacy and volunteerism at Weber State for a long time and I hope that throughout the course of my Presidency I will be able to help and inspire fellow activists as much as Cameron did.  If I can do these two things, I will consider my time as President extremely successful.

Again, I look forward to working with all of you and making some noise at Weber State!  Let's keep the momentum rolling!

Washington D.C. Day 4: Successful Lobbying, Unsuccessful Air-Lining

Our final day in D.C. went very quickly- minus the flight at the end of course.  We started the day by walking to one of the Senate office buildings with over 800 other activists.  We took a quick picture together, and then it was time to go our separate ways.  Hundreds of students lobbying virtually every Senator in the United States- and at the same time too!  We did our share by going to a meeting with Senator Bennett's aid Kami Capner.  Our meeting was pretty quick- about 20 minutes in all, but during that time we showed Kami a short film made by STAND's national organization, pressed the importance of pending legislation, including the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery act as well as the Congo Conflict Minerals act.  In addition, we expressed our concern for future legislation not yet brought to congress, encouraging the Senator to spearhead a project to create genocide-prevention legislation.  After we spoke, we gave Kami the video, some summary sheets, and a full report by the Genocide Prevention Task Force to pass on to the Senator.  Overall, the meeting went very smoothly and was definitely another success for STAND.

Our trip back home, however, has been very difficult!  We were supposed to be back in Salt Lake City at about 11:30 Monday night, but as I write this it is about 8:45 am on Tuesday and we are waiting for a plane in Phoenix! 

In order to get to Phoenix in the first place, we had to get to the Baltimore Airport.  Don't ask me why we couldn't just take a plane from D.C's Reagan airport- Baltimore was for some reason much cheaper.  But anyway, in order to get to Baltimore we had to ride the Metro subway for about 30 minutes and then catch a bus to Baltimore.  This travel was for the most part uneventful, though at one point Jo Anne tried to throw away some paper from a distance and missed the trash can.  Some guy then said "NBA Star, you aren't."  He was right, but I'm fairly certain he wasn't an NBA star either.  If he was, I would have asked him to come with us to Utah so he could remind my Utah Jazz that they still have to play in the 4th quarter.

Anyway, we got to the airport and boarded the plane.  The plane then taxied out near the runway, but they then found out that the cockpit door wouldn't close.  So we idled there for about 30 minutes until they discovered a mechanism for door-closery.  But by then we had idled for so long that the plane didn't have the fuel to get to Phoenix, so we taxied back to the terminal, refueled, and headed back out- delaying us about an hour.  We then flew what seemed like the longest flight in the history of man.  During the flight I finished reading two books, Memoirs of a Geisha and The Stranger.  I also started reading Gandhi's Autobiography, but I decided I didn't want to read any more.  So instead I looked out my window.  It was too dark to see anything; except when the lights of the plane flashed and I could see the wingtips like some really lame mid-air strobe-light rave-party.  In truth I wasn't watching the wingtips though, I was staring at the inside of the window which was frosting over from the cold.  I've never watched frost appear on anything before, but I can say that it takes a long time.  Long time, luckily, was something I had, so I watched frost appear on the window.  In a way it was kind of beautiful, how slowly it accumulated there, but before long I realized that I was watching frost appear on a window, so I took out my journal and started writing.

Jo Anne was asleep this whole time, and the woman sitting next to her was reading a Nicholas Sparks novel, though either she wasn't very interested or wasn't a very fast reader because throughout the course of the flight she only read about 20 pages.  I never asked her about the book though. 

Anyway, after all that junk we finally arrived in Phoenix and, of course, we missed the flight to Salt Lake City.  They gave us a hotel voucher and told us to wait for a van to come from the hotel they had assigned us.  The van didn't come for about 45 minutes.  While we waited for it we were surrounded by a bunch of old people and army veterans smoking cigarettes and we were often talked to by the guy that sat next to Rollin, who was kind of crazy. 

We made it to the hotel though, and they actually had a good breakfast for us this morning.  In good spirits now, I am very much ready to come home.  I need to get caught up in school and sleep in a comfortable bed.  I don't know why I said those things in that order- those are just the things on my mind right now.  That and going on facebook, which I think I'll do right now.  Thanks for reading eh, and um...  Don't fly US Airways?

Washington D.C. Day 3: Museum Visits and Preparation for Lobbying

Our third day in Washington has been another excellent one- we started off early with some more meetings, including a more detailed explanation of the crimes in Burma.  We heard firsthand from Myra Dahgaypaw, an ethnic Karen who was born in Burma and fled with her family at the age of 7.  She told us the story of how her brother and his wife were shot and killed, and how her uncle was forced to watch his wife raped in front of him before he too was killed by Than Shwe's soldiers.  Despite the trauma she clearly and rightfully felt from her experiences, Myra told us what many victims of the Burmese regime have told us.  She asked that we do not feel sorry for her, but instead we learn from what has happened to her and too many others and that we take our knowledge to its logical end- to the halls of our congress and the hearts of our people so we can bring an end to the atrocities in Burma.  Maya finished her moving speech with a call to action first stated by Aung San Suu Kyi, the only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate and rightful President of Burma: "Please use your liberty to promote ours."  The request is simple- that we take the moral action and blessing of liberty we have in the United States and all other free nations and use that power on behalf of others who strive for it, and die for it, daily.

For more information on the genocide in Burma, please visit www.uscampaignforburma.org

Beyond the Burma Plenary, our day was basically empty, which gave us a long awaited opportunity to visit a few of the museums around the National Mall.  We visited the Smithsonian Castle, the Museum of American History, and the Museum of Natural History.  But by far the most moving visit we had today was our visit of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.  The main focus of the museum was of course the efforts Nazi Germany took against the Jews- including a sad exhibit on the children of concentration camps, the Nazi propaganda machine, and others.  What impressed me the most, though, was the exhibit asking visitors to remember what they saw in the museum and to take action against future crimes against humanity.  This including vast information on the crisis in Darfur, pictures from the genocide in Rwanda, and a table where visitors could sign a pledge to spread the word about genocide and to fight it in all its forms.

While in the museum, I recalled Saturday's trip to the Vietnam memorial- a huge wall with 60,000 names of American soldiers who lost their lives in that war.  I realized how we toss numbers around as though we can fathom them, but in all reality the numbers of the dead in these conflicts is really insurmountable.  During the Vietnam War, "only" 58,195 men died, whereas during World War II 55 Million died from all the countries participating in that war.  If you've seen the Vietnam Memorial, you know that those 58,195 names create a massive structure- imagine a wall dedicated to the 55 million of World War II, or even the 6 million Jews murdered!  Imagine the 58,195 stories of those men that died, or the 6 million, or 55 million.  We really can't even fathom these numbers, let alone the stories of the people behind the numbers who really matter.  We need to take action to prevent genocide and war whenever possible, and use violent conflict only as a last resort.  Refusing to use violence isn't a weakness- it is a moral strength and a universal value that appeals to the conscience of humanity.  I encourage all of you to take this movement to heart, because its strength lies in solidarity.

Tomorrow we head to lobby the staff of Senators Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch.  I for one am going to take the stories I have learned this weekend and the strength and support of everyone back home with me to this session.  I pledge to protect the lives of my fellow man to the best of my ability and to represent the anti-genocide and anti-violence movements in good faith, and to use my liberty and my freedom as a means to diffuse justice throughout the world.  I thank everyone supporting Jo Anne, Rollin, and myself yet again and I hope you will stand for these efforts in the future!

Much love to all-

Zach