And now, for that which makes Swarthmore special

<p>Excerpts from today's NYT -- editorial page:</p>

<p>
[quote]
Walking the Talk </p>

<p>By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: October 9, 2005
A year ago, a group of Swarthmore students decided to take on an unusual extracurricular activity: stopping genocide....Mr. Hanis and fellow students started to raise money to help provide security to stop the slaughter in Darfur....Their Genocide Intervention Fund has now raised $250,000 and is about to hand over the first installment to the leaders of the African Union. The money may be used to pay for female African police officers to protect Darfur women from being raped....</p>

<p>The Genocide Intervention Fund now has an all-star cast, including the backing of former White House officials, generals, and celebrities like Mia Farrow and Don Cheadle. Its spokeswoman, a Rwandan genocide survivor who is now a Swarthmore sophomore, introduced Bill Clinton at a student conference. It has opened a Washington office and is lobbying for the bipartisan Darfur Peace and Accountability Act, which calls for sanctions on Sudan and a no-fly zone....</p>

<p>During the Holocaust, when Franklin Roosevelt was as uninterested in genocide as George W. Bush is today, Arthur Koestler referred to those who demanded action as "the screamers." Today, Mr. Hanis, Ms. Smith and others like them are "the screamers," and if it weren't for them the death toll in Darfur would be even higher. Countless thousands of survivors sitting in refugee camps owe their lives to screams coming from places like Swarthmore or Ginghamsburg.

[/quote]
</p>

<p><a href="http://select.nytimes.com/2005/10/09/opinion/09kristof.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://select.nytimes.com/2005/10/09/opinion/09kristof.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>It gives me happy chills to think that some of our younger generation care so much!</p>

<p>My daughter got the opportunity to go to Washington with a busload from Swarthmore for the Genocide Intervention Fund rally and then on to the Senate office building where she "lobbied" our state senators. That's the kind of learning experience that goes beyond the classroom.</p>