Cake or Death

Over President’s weekend of 2003, New York hosted a huge rally against the war in Iraq. I didn’t go. Instead, I spent the weekend holed up in my friend’s house in Vermont, baking rum cakes and sledding. The war happened anyway. I still feel guilty about it, but I’m pretty the ensuing mess would have occurred even if I had shown up to the protest. By that logic, it didn’t seem to matter much that I got to the Save Darfur rally in Central Park yesterday two hours late. I already think Darfur should be saved. I can’t imagine what kind of callous person would think otherwise. Who’s for genocide, other than genocidaires? But when I finally arrived at the East Meadow, I had an absurdly melodramatic change of heart. Here’s how it started, and please don’t laugh: a little kid sold me a cup of 50 cent lemonade, with proceeds to benefit Darfur. “Whose idea was this?” I asked his mom. She said he’d come up with it himself, though he’d been inspired
by the kid down the block who was selling juice to raise money to fight leukemia. It’s treacly, I know (so was the lemonade) but as hot new fads among Manhattan eight-year-olds go, philanthropy is a lot better than Pokemon, or SAT prep. Inside the meadow, a country duo called Big and Rich sang songs about Jesus. They sounded lovely, but it’s not hard to sound good in Central Park on a late summer afternoon. Then they stopped playing and said something idiotic: “This isn’t about politics, y’all.”

This is sort of true. Genocide isn’t a partisan issue. Members of both US parties have embraced the cause. Again: nobody likes genocide. But we’re not talking about Darfur, Minnesota here. Just because it’s not an issue that fits neatly into US politics doesn’t make it unpolitical. In fact, calling it that produces the kind of attitude I keep struggling with—the sense that your opinion is so obviously right that you don’t need to argue it; that obviously, anyone who disagrees with you is so patently bad and evil that you’re better off ignoring them to go bake cakes in the New England woods. If it's not about politics, then what is it about?

So I was psyched when Imam Talib Abdur-Rashid of Harlem’s Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood pointed out the layers of nuance in this issue. “This is a diverse group,” he said of his co-speakers. “If we were all in the same room, we probably wouldn’t agree on many things. But we do agree on this.” Then he warned us against those who are calling for justice in Sudan only because they’re after Su
danese oil, or because they’re always looking for a cause in which Muslims are the bad guys, before calling on his fellow Muslims in Darfur to end the violence.

I suppose it's not a shocker than the religious leader had a more complex take than the pop-country duo. Still, the imam articulated a reason to show up (and to show up on time) to Save Darfur rallies and the like. This stuff isn't obvious. Not being for genocide isn't the same thing as being publically against it.

Eddie Izzard has a routine about how there’s no such thing as Anglican fundamentalism because the whole religion is based on offering people cake. "Cake or death? That's a pretty easy question.” But it’s not, really. Nobody chooses death over cake for themselves, but we’re always choosing it for other people.