Olympian Lost Boy Runs For America

Lopez Lomong, one of the “Lost Boys” who survived horrific circumstances in Sudan and made their way to America, won a spot on the US Olympic team competing in Beijing next month. He represents our nation at its best and brightest, a young, vibrant country that offers its citizens both old and new near limitless potential to be successful.

*I remain profoundly bitter about Sudan. The fact that no one in a position of power understood what was at stake with the killing and chaos in Dar Fur, abandoning the province to the chaos and lawlessness of dozens of armed groups preying upon civilians and UN peacekeeper alike like vultures, drives me to fits of rage. To hear people who should know far better ignorantly pop off about “overblown” reports of genocide with an “I told you so” expression is worse.

Whether it was genocide, ethnic cleansing or just an old-fashioned bloodletting over time, the regime in Khartoum deliberately seized upon existing tensions over land, water and power, exploited them to the tilt, and now stands ready to encroach upon South Sudan and break the peace there, in a blatant grab for more power and precious oil. The inaction of the international community to even field a remotely realistic peacemaking mission or to ably confront the regime on its worst offenses only breeds more misbehavior that will cost countless more lives.

Trying to act like everyone is at fault somehow misses the obvious point, that only one actor in the tragedy retains majority responsibility for uninhibited slaughter and destruction.

So in the last 18 months since arriving back in America, I harnessed my rage into action, helping Sudanese refugees in America get a good start here and move on with their lives. Their successes give me hope, not only for this country in its hospitality and opportunity it offers all immigrants, but that the young, successful Sudanese who are becoming Americans will one day be able to help the country of their ancestry raise out of the doldrums of misgovernance and oppression. An impossible dream perhaps, but one many of them pursue with the infectious optimism that is synonymous with the American spirit.