Rachel Maddow Spotlights T-Mac's Darfur Dream Team

Submitted by Editor on September 30, 2009 - 11:40am.

by: John Prendergast, cross posted from Huffington Post

Last week on MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show, NBA star Tracy "T-Mac" McGrady and I had the chance to discuss the ongoing crisis in Darfur.

Along with Derek Fisher of the Lakers and Baron Davis of the
Clippers, Tracy is one of the three co-captains of the Darfur Dream
Team Sister Schools Program. This initiative links American schools to
schools in the Darfur refugee camps in Chad, aiming to help provide a
quality education to the refugees of Darfur (www.darfurdreamteam.org).

Thanks to Tracy's leadership, the involvement of groups like the Enough Project
and UNHCR, and contributions from the public, nearly $200,000 has been
pledged and 288 American schools have signed up to participate.

In the segment, Rachel points out that many human rights advocates
are disappointed that the campaign promises to act on Darfur -- not
just from President Obama, but also from Secretary of State Clinton and
Vice President Biden -- haven't yet materialized in the Obama
administration's approach. But, she added, "the pressure is not going
away," in part because of celebrities "who won't let it go away."

As I told Rachel, "As a candidate, [Obama] had been so clear about
the need for American diplomatic leadership ... The answer is not
sending in the 82nd Airborne. The answer is real, serious American
political diplomatic engagement in support of a sustainable peace in
Sudan."

The U.S. needs to work to put forward a peace proposal for Darfur
that addresses the causes of the crisis there. And it needs to
unequivocally and robustly support the necessary steps to the national
election and referendum for southern Sudan that are spelled out but not
yet implemented in the North-South peace deal.