By Muhammed Rizaee
On Thursday February 21, 2013 a peaceful protest and a candlelight vigil were held in front of CNN’s headquarters, Atlanta Georgia USA, protesting the genocide of the Hazara people. The protest ran from 5PM to 6:15PM, with the vigil following from 6:15PM to 7:00PM. This demonstration was held during downtown Atlanta’s afternoon rush hour to attract the most attention of passers-by.
More than 45 people attended this demonstration, including women, children, and sympathetic Americans. Karla Bradbury, an American who was one of the event’s organizers added, “I have many Afghan friends who live in Afghanistan, Australia and now in Atlanta. My heart breaks for the victims and families. As human beings we are all family and we must stand together against violence and embrace love and peace as the answer.” And a local community activist and artist Odijie Bopniface attended, saying, “Let us not close our eyes acting like we do not see innocent Hazara people die.
Let us join hands and do anything humanely possible to stop these senseless killings. We are all one—same human being, despite our culture, tribe or ethnicity. It is sad and heart-broken to wake up and watch our loved ones gone, taken by untimely death. We must stand up and take it as our duty to protect the sanctity of human life, since we cannot make or create one.
I, therefore, use this opportunity to call on all the above to kindly help the Hazaras and stop the killings.” Over all, the reason to this demonstration was to show our sympathy to the victims’ families who lost their loved ones, and to send this message to them that we are with you.