Let me take a moment to display my own ignorance.

Until a few days ago I wasn't aware of what was really going on in Darfur.

I knew that something akin to a civil war had been raging in the area for years, I knew that the word genocide seemed to keep coming up and I knew that we were supposed to do something about it. However, being a leftist is hard work. There are so many causes, so many wrongs to right and so many things to find yourself up in arms over that it's difficult to keep up with what particular thing I need to be saving from day-to-day. Besides, I have to keep up with the important things... like Anna Nicole Smith's baby daddy woes, the Britney/K-Fed split and who Lindsey Lohan was getting drunk with last night.

One night while watching the Nancy Grace show (and hoping that she didn't kill anyone this week) I saw an ad for the coalition, Save Darfur. The numbers were astounding, the testimonials were heartbreaking and what I was hearing gave me pause... it even caused me to sit straight up and take notice. It's incredible... it's immeasurable... this suffering can't be real. If it is, why haven't I heard more about it? Why isn't it the lead story on the news every night? Oh, wait, I forgot... Paris Hilton did something skanky today.

Anyway, I won't get all holier-than-thou on you, I'm just as guilty. However, I want to make something clear: what's going on in Darfur is worse than you can imagine, and unless we take personal responsibility for helping these people the blood is on our hands. OUR hands. MY hands. YOUR hands.

I won't bore you with long-winded explanations as to exactly what's going on, I'll let you read up on that yourself. This wikipedia article is packed with valuable information and remarkably concise, given the length and nature of the conflict. Save Darfur has a fairly user-friendly background on their site, so if you have even less time than the wiki article will allow, venture over there.

Just to give you an idea of what's going on, let me share some pictures of what disease, fammine and unspeakable acts of human cruelty have brought these innocent people. I'll warn you, these images are graphic, but I feel like we could use a human face here.

A child burned during a Sudanese bombing campaign.

Starvation claims another life as the Janjaweed violently keeps aid from reaching refugee camps.

Bodies line the streets.

Finally, and simply, sadness.

This isn't a Democrat or Republican issue. This isn't a conservative or liberal issue. Some of the most conservative (Tancredo of CO) , liberal (Feingold of WI) and moderate (McCain (AZ), Lieberman (CT)) have called for action in support of these people. We must do our part as Americans and as human beings to bring an end to this needless suffering.

Follow this link to the Save Darfur site to make a donation or buy a t-shirt, every dime helps to raise awareness. After doing that, why not click here and send a message to your Congressman or (if you're local) Senator Mitch McConnell? It only takes a second and could make all the difference in the world.

Thanks for making it this far. Real human life is on the line here, we must do our part, however small it may be.