MuseumDESCRIPTION:
Darfur activist Tim Nonn discusses his latest national campaign, “Tents of Hope,” and the challenge of maintaining hope and bearing witness in the face of genocide.
TRANSCRIPT:
JERRY FOWLER: My guest today is Tim Nonn. He’s a Darfur activist from Northern California, who has conceived and executed several innovative campaigns, including “Dear Sudan,” “Judgment on Genocide,” and most recently, “Tents of Hope.” Tim, welcome to the program.
TIM NONN: Thank you.
JERRY FOWLER: I want to talk about all those campaigns I just mentioned, but first I want to explore how it is that you got involved in this issue.
TIM NONN: I was working at home as an editor and raising my son, who was four years old at the time, back in 2004, and I saw a television program, the “Charlie Rose Show,” with John Prendergast and Samantha Powers. And at first I-- when I turned it on, immediately I turned it off, because it was late at night, I had put my son to sleep, and I wanted to relax and not hear something depressing and-- But then something in my heart kept saying, “No, you should watch this.” And in retrospect, I’ve realized that I’d been turning off Darfur for a couple years, and-- before that. So, I kept going back and forth, and finally I decided to watch it. And I heard them tell the story of a woman who saw her husband shot to death, and her village burned to the ground in Darfur, and then she crossed the desert for about a week, carrying an infant child, and brought several other children with her. And she reached a refugee camp. And I just broke down in tears after hearing that story, because as a father, I could relate to it, and I realized that she had, must have had such great love for her children to do that, when maybe she wanted to die, maybe she didn’t feel like she had a future, but she wanted her children to have a future. And her love, and that hope, inspired me to get involved. And that’s when I started the “Dear Sudan” campaign.
JERRY FOWLER: I think that’s interesting. You talk about responding as a father, because that touches me a lot, and I found when I-- the first trip I took to the refugee camps, what touched me the most were the children, and at that time I had children who were, girls who were three and five. And in looking at the exhibition here on the Holocaust and thinking about that -- to me, it always comes back to the fact that those could be my children.
TIM NONN: Right, and that’s why I’m involved, and continue to be involved. And at the time, I think I had this paradigm of hope, that hope was like a glass of water in my heart, and I didn’t want to expose myself to really depressing situations like genocide or Darfur, because I thought the hope would be drained from me, and I wanted that hope to raise my son, and give him hope, and give a future to him. But, now I realize that I was operating with the wrong paradigm, that hope is more like a muscle. I took this train trip around the country this summer, and realized that by being in connection with a lot of great people throughout the country who are working in various cities in the Darfur movement, that that gives me hope. And so we have to exercise that muscle of hope by being in connection to one another. And most of the time we feel powerless in our lives, and because of these destructive forces in the world like genocide, and we feel like we can’t do anything. But by being in connection with one another, we-- our hope gets stronger. And my hope now is stronger than it’s ever been, since I started. And I think that’s-- I think that’s better for my son, as a parent, because I think I’m giving him authentic hope, not to turn away from depressing situations, but having the hope that we can confront those situations and do something about them.
JERRY FOWLER: I want to explore that train trip that you mentioned, but first, I want to go back to that time period in 2004, where you watched the “Charlie Rose Show,” and you first had something touched in your heart about Darfur. And as you said, you’re sitting at home, taking care of your kid, working as an editor in a relatively small community in Northern California, Petaluma. What did you do then? How did-- a lot of people might’ve watched “Charlie Rose” and been touched by it, but how did you get from watching it to really launching a project that has involved people all over the country?
TIM NONN: Well, I’m a member of the United Church of Christ, and the United Church of Christ has been involved historically in a lot of great movements, like the movement to abolish slavery and the movement for women’s rights. So I come out of that tradition. And so when we see injustice, we’re taught to-- that we have to act. And so immediately I went to my pastor and I told her about this, feeling like we needed to do something. And she said, “Well, why don’t you preach a sermon in the church one Sunday.” And I did, and I didn’t know what people would do. I didn’t know if they would just be bored or fall asleep or feel like they didn’t want to get involved in a situation halfway across the world. And they responded with such compassion and enthusiasm about wanting to do something, that we were able to organize Petaluma to raise enough money to feed 55,000 in the camps in Sudan, which is the population of Petaluma, for one day through a program with Church World Service and with American Jewish World Service.
JERRY FOWLER: I think that’s interesting, the way you had that progression from feeling that there was something that you should do, to speaking to your congregation. And I know you and I have talked before about this idea of bearing witness. And the idea that witnesses can shape the reaction of others. And it’s something that I know I’ve often thought about, that if people are passive, you encourage people to be passive; but if you speak out, you encourage others to speak out. And that seems like a perfect example of that.
TIM NONN: Right, and maybe you can relate to this, but as a father, I constantly realize that I’m underestimating my son. And he’s al-- he always comes up with ideas and perspectives that I didn’t expect an eight year old could have. So, I spoke to his school a few weeks ago, Meadow Elementary School. The principal, Melissa Becker, who was changed a lot from coming to the Holocaust Museum, asked me to speak to the children. And I asked them, “Should we care about people halfway across the world in Sudan?” and I asked them to raise their hands, and every one of them raised their hands very quickly, and wanted to do something to help. And I think that as human beings, we want to do something to help. But a lot of times we’re discouraged because we feel like we can’t make a difference, and that’s why it’s important to come together as communities, to realize we can.
JERRY FOWLER: Now, the focus of your activities originally, as you said, was raising money for humanitarian relief. And I know that ultimately it was not just in Petaluma, but there were communities certainly all over Northern California, I think it was all over the country, where people were raising money. But there came a time when you felt that that wasn’t enough, and I think that’s when you started on the project that is called “Judgment on Genocide.” Can you explain how that came about?
TIM NONN: Sure. John Prendergast played a role in that, too, because he told me what the International Criminal Court was doing in its case on Darfur, of wanting to see if it was possible to indict people in Sudan for crimes against humanity there. And I got interested in that and so one thing I realized is that a lot of people throughout the country didn’t even know that the ICC case existed. And so I thought we needed to do something dramatic to let people know that it was going on. And so we did that with a citizens tribunal in New York City at the U.N. Church Center.
JERRY FOWLER: And just explain that citizens tribunal, the kind of presiding judge, as it were, was the Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, was a very obviously well-known Nigerian author. Who else was on the tribunal? How was this trial conducted?
TIM NONN: Dr. Gregory Stanton, who’s the president of Genocide Watch, and Reverend Gloria White Hammond, who’s played a leadership role in the Darfur Movement. But the main point is that a lot of times we think as ordinary people, ’cause I consider myself an ordinary person in that I’m trying to raise a son and make a living, and we feel like as ordinary people we don’t have a role to play in ending genocide. And we wanted to demonstrate, through the citizens tribunal, even though Wole Soyinka and others were involved, that ultimately the judgment on genocide has to do with citizens, and that all of us, you know, like the question I asked the elementary school students, all of us are faced with the question, “Are we going to look away or are we going to see the genocide that’s going on in Darfur?” And we have to make that decision, sometimes repeatedly, because it gets difficult to keep looking. Seeing is a difficult act; but if we don’t, if we refuse to see, then we lose our humanity, and if we refuse to act, we lose our soul. And it’s really important, even though the situation in Darfur sometimes seems complex, with all the fracturing of the rebel groups and so forth, that it seems like chaos sometimes. But this is a genocide that’s being directed by President Bashir, and the National Islamic Front, in Sudan, the government there. It’s not an accident, like the fires in Southern California, a natural disaster. It’s a strategy to wipe out the people of Darfur.
JERRY FOWLER: Before we leave this issue of “Judgment on Genocide,” what was the upshot of that? You held this citizens tribunal, there were prosecutors, there was a defense attorney. And Omar Bashir himself was putatively on trial. What’s happened with that?
TIM NONN: Well, a number of organizations, like “Save Darfur Coalition” and “Physicians for Human Rights” are now focusing on the ICC case as an important facet of the genocide in Darfur, that we have to hold those perpetrators of genocide accountable. We can’t just say, “Well, okay, it’s been a few years since the major killing took place, so now you get a free “get out of jail card,” and that they have to be held accountable. Because it sends a bad message if perpetrators of genocide are just let off without any sort of consequences. And I think the-- you had the prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo on a previous show, and he is determined because of his experience with the human rights movement in Argentina, he’s determined to bring the perpetrators to justice. And I think a number of organizations now see that as an essential part of addressing the genocide in Darfur.
JERRY FOWLER: Now, this past summer, you were given an award by your denomination, the United Church of Christ. And the award was going to be presented in Connecticut, I think it was.
TIM NONN: Mm-hm.
JERRY FOWLER: And of course you’re in California, and one thing you could’ve done is gotten on a plane and fly to Connecticut and receive the award, which was an award for your activism, so it was very much deserved. But instead you took a whistle-stop tour of the United States, taking a train and stopping in community after community, and talking about Darfur. Tell me about that.
TIM NONN: Well, it sort of came at the juncture of the campaign, “Judgment on Genocide,” and then the “Tents of Hope” campaign, and so a number of communities wanted me to speak about “Judgment on Genocide.” And then I realized, “well, maybe I could—“ I have a fear of flying, “so maybe I could just take a train trip around the country.” So I planned a 40 day trip, and spoke at a number of congregations and schools.
JERRY FOWLER: So, it wasn’t just a stroke of brilliance, it also came out of your phobia about flying.
TIM NONN: Oh, my fear. So you can turn a flaw into something good. And it was amazing to see how local communities are the foundation of this movement, that the strength, that’s what’s going to allow this movement to endure. And ultimately succeed. And so it became increasingly clear to me that just as ordinary people respond out of their compassion for people who are being unjustly persecuted and killed, that the hope within us is going to come within local communities, and allow this movement to endure. So that’s when it became clear to me that we needed to get “Tents of Hope” going.
JERRY FOWLER: Okay. So tell me about “Tents of Hope.”
TIM NONN: Well, a lot of communities around the country and in some other countries are ordering these canvas wall tents, and painting images on them, of hope and compassion and peace. And they are symbols of our solidarity with the people of Darfur. But they’re more than symbols because during the year that we’re going to be painting these tents, we’re going to be raising funds for humanitarian relief and sending real tents there. And we’re going to be advocating for protection of civilians in Darfur and doing educational projects. So, then it’ll culminate next October here in Washington, D.C., at the National Mall, where all the tents will come together from across the country, and stand as a symbol that America is compassionate, and that the American people care about what happens to the people of Darfur.
JERRY FOWLER: So the idea is that if you’re out there, and you have a congregation or a school group, or I suppose any kind of community group, your bowling team--
TIM NONN: Mm-hm.
JERRY FOWLER: --that you can order one of these tents, and I suppose they can find them through your website, which would be--
TIM NONN: TentsofHope.org.
JERRY FOWLER: TentsofHope.org. And then the community comes together to decorate these tents with messages for, basically of hope for people in Darfur. And around this coming together, they’ll raise money and generate awareness.
TIM NONN: In different communities, schools, elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, colleges, seminaries, even a retirement home in Pasadena, are coming together to create these tents, and so it’s pulling the community together, and making a statement that diversity is a resource. It’s not something that we should fear, diversity is a resource for our hope and for our children. And it’s fun, too. Children love-- the students at my son’s school, Meadow Elementary, they love painting these tents. And that’s one particular aspect of this project is something called “Patchwork Tents,” and the tent company, Reliable Tents and Teepees in Billings, Montana, is donating thousands of these one-by-one foot square canvas panels, and school children are paint-- in America, are painting one side of the panels. Then Gabrielle Stauring is bringing them over to the refugee camps in Chad, and the students there will paint the other side, and then Reliable Tents will sew them together into eight-by-ten foot tents. So they’ll be works of art created by the children here in American and the children in Sudan, and so I think it’s that connection that people have with the people of Darfur, just like my original experience of hearing that woman’s story, that gives us the determination to keep going.
JERRY FOWLER: And I believe you mentioned this, but the idea is that this project, these tents of hope, will culminate next October, so basically about a year from now, by everyone bringing their tents to the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
TIM NONN: Mm-hm. The gathering of the tents. And it’ll be a colorful refugee camp. And I think it’s important that, like you said previously, in a different discussion we had, that we don’t think of this just as a frivolous activity, painting the tents. That we have to keep the tension between hope and suffering, and it’s in that tension between hope and suffering, not turning away but understanding that together as communities, we can sustain the hope that will allow us to end the genocide in Darfur. It’s in that tension that we become human, and we teach our children to become human, and responsible citizens in our communities, and responsible citizens in the world.
JERRY FOWLER: Let me ask you a little bit about sustaining that hope. And it goes to the idea of, as the situation on the ground, which was always complex, becomes more complex, and you referred to this a little bit earlier, the fragmentation of the rebels, the very clear reality that they are not good guys. And the continuation of the situation, just the fact that now it’s been years that has been going on. How is it that you continue to, one, make it accessible to the public, make sure people don’t lose sight of the moral contours of the situation, but also continue a sense of hope that by getting engaged, we can have a positive effect on the outcome?
TIM NONN: Well, I’ll come back to my train trip around the country. Because I’m a member of a, what’s known as a progressive denomination, the United Church of Christ, for a long time I always thought that being a proponent of social justice and peace meant that we had to change the world. And I thought, “Well, it’s very difficult and it’s easy to get burned out, in some of these struggles, which are so daunting.” Like genocide. But then, through the train trip and meeting all these incredible people throughout the country who are working to address the genocide in Darfur, I realize it’s not about changing the world. The world is perfect. It’s about seeing one another as sacred, and seeing the world as sacred, and connecting with that sacredness, which I as a Christian see as God. But I think that anyone can see the world as sacred and see other people as sacred. And that takes a lot of work, but in doing that work, of seeing the sacredness, we see that it sustains us, it gives us hope, because we’re connected to something which is there, which exists. We don’t have to wait for the perfect world. And sometimes I think people get hung up on the fact that, “Well, we have to wait until we get a certain person elected into office to have a decent country,” or “We have to wait until certain things happen in history to have the Kingdom of God on Earth,” and-- But here at the museum, and looking at the shoes in one of the rooms of the victims of the Holocaust, I see those shoes as sacred. And the individual people, even though they’ve been murdered, remind us, those shoes, like it says in that poem by the poet, that those shoes are witnesses. And I think, “Well, if those shoes can be a witness, then I can be a witness, too.”
JERRY FOWLER: Tim Nonn is a Darfur activist from Northern California, and his latest project is “Tents of Hope.” Tim, thanks for taking the time to be with us.
TIM NONN: Thank you, Jerry.
NARRATOR: You have been listening to Voices on Genocide Prevention, from United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. To learn more about preventing genocide, join us online at www.ushmm.org/conscience. There you’ll also find the Voices on Genocide Prevention weblog.
