Nick Clooney engages local crowd on Darfur

The older man's deep, hale voice resonated through the Monroe County Public Library's auditorium, as the audience, their faces upturned toward him, leaned forward, drawn to his magnetic personality like moths to a gleaming bulb.\nIt's easy to see where Academy-award winner George Clooney gets his vibrant character from -- his father. But Tuesday evening, veteran journalist Nick Clooney was using his fame as a father and brother of celebrities for a more important cause. He came to Bloomington on his own steam to help raise awareness for the genocide currently occurring in West Sudan.\n"I went over a reporter and I came back an advocate," Clooney told a crowd of about 100 area and regional residents, some from as far as Louisville, Ky. \nThis April, Clooney traveled with his son, George, to create a news documentary about the ethnic cleansing happening to the millions of Muslim Africans living in the Darfur region of Sudan. \nThe Coalition for International Justice estimates that 400,000 people have been killed in Darfur since February 2003, when the conflict between the ruling government and the Darfuris began, and 2 million have been exiled to refugee camps. \n"This is the first genocide we can stop," Clooney said. "I want you to feel accountable for those who are dangling by a gossamer thread."\nClooney described the people of Darfur, who being persecuted by a group known as the Janjaweed militia, as "dignified, brave people" whose only fault is believing naively in the United States' ability to save them.\n"They think we can fix it," Clooney said, his rolling voice echoing easily through the room. "They believe it down to their shoes -- down to their sandals. They are just surprised we haven't done it yet."\nHe spoke eloquently about families driven to make incredible sacrifices. One mother he met, he said, told him that when the Janjaweed came, she and her family had to run. And as they began to flee their village, her 13-year-old ahead of her and her 2-year-old in her arms, she knew that she could not save her 6-year-old, who could not run as fast as them and quickly fell behind. \n"Three days later she was able to return to her village," Clooney said, his voice quiet. "And she found her 6-year-old son's head in a well."\nClooney left Bloomington residents with a call to action -- continue to send money to your charity organizations, just earmark it for Darfur. Call your federal representatives, he said, because it is only if the public pushes the government to care they will make changes. \nWhen members of the audience questioned how much they could actually do to change the minds of governments, Clooney was quick with answers. \n"People listen to you here in Bloomington," he said. Then he paused and, with a smile, leaned into the microphone. "They think you're smart."\nJim Williams, 57, of Bloomington, said he thought Clooney's talk would help the humanitarian aspect of problem in Darfur. \n"I think that the humanitarian aspect of the effort is critical," Williams said. "But to find a long-term solution we have to figure out how to deal with that government [in the Sudan]."\nThe Jackson family, who traveled from Louisville to see Clooney talk about the situation in Darfur, said the talk made them even more aware of the problems being faced by the people of Darfur. \n"It's a global thing; it's a humanitarian thing," Kelly Jackson said, adding that he felt he had a spiritual duty as a Christian to help the Darfuris.\nClooney also reminded the journalists in the audience that they had a duty to stop this type of ignorance as well. \n"News organizations cannot just give the audience what they want to hear -- they must tell them what is really going on in their world," he said. "It's going to take a new generation of journalists and new culture of journalism."\nA local chapter of Save Darfur and an IU student group, Student Taking Action Now-Darfur sponsored Clooney's visit.