MuseumDESCRIPTION:
Erin Mazursky, the Executive Director of STAND: Students Taking Action Now: Darfur and a Georgetown University student talks with Jerry Fowler about why she became active on Darfur and the Power to Protect Campaign that STAND is running in conjunction with the April 30th rally on the National Mall.
TRANSCRIPT:
NARRATOR: Welcome to Voices on Genocide Prevention, a podcasting service of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Your host is Jerry Fowler, Director of the Museum’s Committee on Conscience.
JERRY FOWLER: Our guest today is Erin Mazursky. She is a junior at Georgetown University here in Washington, D.C. and Executive Director of Students Taking Action Now: Darfur, a nation-wide student movement. She will be one of the speakers at the April 30th rally on the Mall, here in Washington. Erin, welcome to the program.
ERIN MAZURSKY: Thanks for having me.
JERRY FOWLER: Let me start, Erin, you are the Executive Director of STAND—Students Taking Action Now: Darfur—tell me exactly what STAND is.
ERIN MAZURSKY: STAND is a completely student-run organization, started in 2004 that has expanded across the country to other schools, and it works to bring awareness to the issue on Darfur, as well as, the National Coalition works to bring schools together under one message, to help stop the genocide.
JERRY FOWLER: How many STAND chapters are there?
ERIN MAZURSKY: There are about two hundred college chapters and 300 high school chapters nationwide, and a few internationally.
JERRY FOWLER: Wow. What are some of the things that STAND has sponsored nationally, that the umbrella group has sponsored?
ERIN MAZURSKY: This past semester, starting in January, STAND has been part of the One Million Voices/Power to Protect Campaign which has been pretty much a postcard campaign to try and get a million postcards signed to President Bush asking him for a stronger, larger, multi-national force. Within that campaign, we have had a media campaign, an awareness campaign, and then a big push for an international day of action, week of action, where schools have had awareness days or rallies at the beginning of April, and then finally, we have helped to sponsor the rally that is coming up on April 30th, and a weekend before that with a lobby day, where 850 students from across the country are coming this Friday to lobby Congress and then have workshops on Saturday, and then to come be a part of the larger anti-genocide contingency on Sunday.
JERRY FOWLER: Where are students coming the farthest from?
ERIN MAZURSKY: Anywhere from Canada to California, from Florida, from all four corners of the country in North America.
JERRY FOWLER: What are some of the more imaginative things that students have done on their campuses or in their communities?
ERIN MAZURSKY: A lot of students have done rallies, more activism-type activities, like die-ins. The divestment campaign has been incredibly effective across the country and has gotten a lot of recognition, and it has been very effective in getting peoples’ attention, and I think it will grow in partnership with STAND, so I look forward to seeing that in the coming months and next year.
JERRY FOWLER: How did you first get involved in this Darfur effort?
ERIN MAZURSKY: Actually, it was the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. I was at Georgetown and I got an email through the Jewish Students’ Association saying that there was a program through the Committee on Conscience at the Holocaust Museum about the genocide that was going on in Darfur, and I saw the word genocide and I said, “Today?” and went to this program and learned for the first time what was really going on. From there, a group of Georgetown students who had gone to the program kind of sat down and we were like, “Okay, well what do we want to do now?” and we formed STAND. It kind of just went from there I guess. Because of my initial involvement with something that I felt like I had always had a part in, it contributed further to my involvement in STAND, and this year, more and more.
JERRY FOWLER: Stepping back, as you say, there are these student STAND chapters on 200 campuses, 300 high schools. Students have really been in the vanguard of public outcry. Why is it that students generally are so engaged in this issue?
ERIN MAZURSKY: It is a one subject issue that is clearly just wrong, and I think that students have been very effective in engaging other students. It has just kind of grown that way. I think that the basic right to life is emerging as everyone’s cause, and genocide is clearly the most intrusive of that right. Students are up in arms and ready to take on these issues, and Darfur and genocide are the most immediate of these issues.
JERRY FOWLER: Have you found of campus that there are students who push back on this, who say that this is something we should not be involved in?
ERIN MAZURSKY: That is sort of the beauty of this issue—it is bipartisan, and no one can really say that they are pro-genocide, so whether people support it by just signing a postcard or just by listening to what people have to say on campus, nobody has said that this is not an issue that we need to take up and do something about. The student movement itself has actually been very unifying in terms of very liberal students and very conservative students coming together and bringing their interests to the table to expand the movement. They might not agree on every other issue, but they come together to the table on this and say, “No, this is wrong, and we need to stop this in whatever capacity we can.”
JERRY FOWLER: As I mentioned at the beginning, you are going to be one of the speakers this Sunday, April 30th in the rally on the Mall. Can you give us a preview of your remarks?
ERIN MAZURSKY: Some of what I said, that this is the basic right to life, that everyone at the rally is going to be there because they understand the importance of life. At the same time, it is what we do after the rally and how we show this that matters. Students and people who are there, students and activists need to start building greater communities amongst each other and really unify as one.
JERRY FOWLER: Looking beyond the rally, as significant as it may be, it will certainly not be the end of the crisis. What are your plans for STAND going forward?
ERIN MAZURSKY: Absolutely; I think the rally is a huge culmination, and it has shown great success within the movement, within the student movement and within the greater movement for Darfur, but it is certainly not the end and I think that often needs to be emphasized in the rally. STAND has plans for this summer to bridge campuses and high schools with their greater communities so that they build mini-coalitions within the larger STAND national coalition. We also hope to push much more largely on advocacy and lobbying Congress next year through various efforts, as well as really supporting the divestment campaign that has had so much success.
JERRY FOWLER: What about yourself? Obviously you are going to be engaged in Darfur for the indefinite future, but looking beyond that, what do you hope to do?
ERIN MAZURSKY: Somewhat of the same thing. Right now I am studying Culture and Politics with a minor in Justice and Peace, and I hope to continue in the Human Rights sector with probably more of a focus in Development; those are sort of my interests.
JERRY FOWLER: Alright; Erin Mazursky is a Junior at Georgetown University and Executive Director of Students Taking Action Now: Darfur—STAND—a national umbrella group with over 500 chapters on colleges and high schools around the country and in Canada and internationally. She will be speaking Sunday, April 30th at the rally on the Mall. Erin thanks so much for being with us.
ERIN MAZURSKY: Thank you again.
NARRATOR: You have been listening to Voices on Genocide Prevention, a podcasting service of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. To learn more about the Museum’s Committee on Conscience, visit our website at www.committeeonconscience.org.
