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State Senator Urges Divestment from Sudan
CHICAGO, IL (April 11, 2005) - A former Emmy award-winning journalist turned
Illinois state legislator told North Park students recently that
spiritual journey led her to push for a state-wide ban on investing in
war-torn Sudan.
In her March 31 remarks at North Park Theological Seminary, state Sen.
Jackie Collins, of Chicago, said that businesses that invest in Sudan
provide revenue for the Khartoum government to commit what United
States politicians have called genocide.
Collins's legislation is based on laws that mandated divestiture from
South Africa. Companies providing food, medication and other
humanitarian aid would be exempted. She noted that the bill has
received bipartisan support and was crafted with an initially skeptical
state treasurer.
"It's important because the money we provide is channeled as revenue
for the Khartoum government to invest money in the war paraphernalia
they use to bomb, pillage and destroy the villages of the people living
in the Darfur area," she said.
Covenant World Relief has been active in helping to bring relief to
Sudanese refugees, many of whom also have had family members forced
into slavery.
"More than 2 million people have been displaced," Collins said. "To me
it's a tsunami every month with the number of people dying every month
in Darfur."
The Clinton Administration instituted sanctions in 1997 preventing
companies from doing business in Sudan after attacks on the U.S.S.
Cole, and it was determined that Sudan had given assistance to
Osama bin Laden.
"The way companies get around this is by doing business with foreign
companies," Collins said.
When she began investigating how much money Illinois had invested in
these companies, Collins discovered that combined investments of the
State Board of Investment and the Illinois State Teachers' Retirement
System amounted to more than $1 billion.
"This was an eye-opener to me. I wasn't even aware how we are invested
in the Sudan. I think most people, most investors, if they knew their
money was supporting Sudan, I think they would say, 'I don't want my
money helping the Sudan government because of the atrocities there.' "
Saying, "I hope each state would use this as a model," Collins
encouraged students to have legislators in their states support similar
legislation. Information on how much each state has invested in
companies doing business with Sudan can be found atwww.divestsudan.org,
Collins said.
Collins emphasized that the issue was neither sectarian nor partisan,
noting that the Bush administration has taken a lead role in efforts to
stop the violence in Sudan.
"Franklin Graham was the first to bring the issue to the Bush
administration," Collins said. After he toured the Darfur region, Colin
Powell came back and called it genocide." Sam Brownback, R-KS, has
taken the lead in the United States Senate to keep the issue visible,
she added.
Collins shared with the students her own spiritual journey that led her
to deal with Sudan and other policy issues. For 20 years, she was an
Emmy-nominated producer for CBS News in Chicago, but decided she needed
to do more to help others. She began to ask herself, "Was I truly
fulfilling what I think God's dream was for me, the potential and
purpose he put in my heart."
She attended Harvard, where she earned a master's degree from the John
F. Kennedy School of Government and a master's degree in theological
studies from Harvard Divinity School in 2003. When she returned from
Harvard, her priest encouraged her to run for the state senate, but she
was nervous because she preferred "working in the background," Collins
said.
"In my prayer time, in the reflection, what the Holy Spirit told me was
that God has not given you a spirit of fear but of power, love and a
sound mind," Collins said. She encouraged the students not to be afraid
to step out in faith to care for others.
"Fear is a distraction, that's someone preventing you from possibly
reaching your destiny," she said. "You can never let fear box you in
because whenever you are afraid to move out of your comfort zone, you
stop growing."
"I think God calls us all to a purpose," Collins said. "I want to be a
voice for the voiceless."
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