Helping Global Neighbors

Helping Global Neighbors

Last week I went to the Kristallnacht memorial, but this week Loyola was hosting a presentation about something a little more recent. The Yemeni civil war is on its fourth year, but the American government has a chance to do something about the destruction it is creating.

Loyola’s Peace Studies and International Studies program hosted Hassan El-Tayyab, the Jordanian-American Policy and Organizational Director at Chicago Area Peace Action.

 

He talked passionately and at length about the war in Yemen, starting with presenting two short videos to give us a background on the topic. One of them gave a brief overview of the politics and current state of the fighting affairs, while the other was a passionate plea to the U.S. Senators by children in Yemen, affected by the civil war. You can watch that heartbreaking video here and learn more about what’s going on from that website.

After detailing the conflict, as well as sharing his family connection to the suffering and war crimes happening in the Middle East, Hassan moved to talk about his organization, Chicago Area Peace Action, and what could be done.

I learned that CAPA is working to pass two bills, one in the House of Representatives and another in the Senate, that would get U.S. involvement in Yemen recognized by Congress and then ended through the War Powers Act of 1973. Although many Congresspeople from both sides of the aisle have supported these bills, others have not done anything one way or the other, including Senator Tammy Duckworth – so, he shared, CAPA was taking action and had a rally scheduled outside of her office.

Loyola itself also has a local chapter of CAPA on campus, and our student organization has actions planned and a focus on raising awareness of what can be done to stop what the United Nations recognizes as the “worst man made humanitarian conflict in recent history.”

Overall, I was really glad I went to this event, and that Loyola allowed for this kind of awareness-raising event. Even as someone who reads the news daily, I think it’s very valuable to pay special attention to disasters like this and that we stay informed of the way our fellow humans are experiencing our planet at the same time we sit there and eat cookies and drink lemonade, in a building of a university we are being educated at, without fear of a missile or other government-sponsored attack raining down at us at any time.

My biggest takeaway, though, was that there is always something we as individuals can do. Even if it’s just signing a petition or writing a blog post, the speaker was very clear that even the smallest action, even just a small group of people, can affect global change – and save lives, if the bills can be passed in the new Congress.

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