Sex. See, that got you reading. I bet if I'd started the article off with something like, "God, I hate this school," or an unorthodox statement about minorities, or something to do with beer, you would have started reading, too.

As editor of this paper's forum page, one of my jobs is to keep a gauge on what readers want, and give it to them if possible. Of course there are other factors that go into our decsion-making (like what the paper considers important) but I love satsifying Brandeis' craving for appealing pages: Brandeis likes to talk about our party scene, or lack thereof; it likes intelligent debate, but nothing it could read just as easily in The New York Times; it likes the controversial, but not the pointless; and anything mentioning sex or booze is pretty much a winner.

A few days ago, Sean Lewis-Faupel '08 came into the office to pitch an op-ed idea to me. He wanted to talk about his group, Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND), and all the progress they've made in their efforts to raise awareness about Darfur.

I had to break it to him. "You know, the problem is, Brandeis really isn't interested in articles about Darfur right now." It's true: From what people have told me, articles mentioning Darfur get about as many reads as articles about the women's tennis team. Brandeis students are pretty well-versed in Sudan's problems-and they all seem to agree it's unfortunate-but that's about the extent of their interest.

"I'm not saying it's impossible," I said, "It's just that it would have to be more than P.R. for your cause-you'd have to analyze the issue, and not just spew the usual STAND platform. It would have to be really, really good."

Sean, a soft-spoken, intelligent guy, agreed. He said he thought that would be hard, but one of my writers could try to tackle it if they wanted. We both paused and sighed a little, I said something stupid like, "Well ... good luck saving everybody..." and he left.

About 15 minutes later, it began to dawn on me-with that creeping, stomach-twisting guilt you get when you realize you've just done something terrible completely by accident-how very disturbing the whole situation was.

Brandeis, and, for that matter, the rest of the United States, isn't overly concerned about the slaughter of millions of people in Africa. Not to the point where action is demanded beyond the realm of convenience or extracurricular amusement. And then my stomach took another turn: For much of World War II, America really didn't concern itself with the slaughter of millions of Jews in Europe. A major reason for that was the indifference of the press. The New York Times kept stories about the Holocaust off its front page (check out Laurel Leff's new book Buried by the Times if you don't believe me) partially because most of America didn't warm to the idea of joining a war to save the Jewish people.

It's disgusting. I'm not Jewish, but some of the best friends I've ever had in my life, including my boyfriend, are. My grandfather, who was a colonel during the war, led the freeing of some of Hitler's concentration camps, and he was never the same afterward. The fact that no one in America cared about the murder of millions is so maddening to think of.

It's happening again, only it's in Africa this time. And I was only furthering America's famous indifference to foreign need.

So here it goes.

Over 400,000 men, women and children have died in Sudan because of conflict in the region, and more than 2.5 million people have been displaced.

Sean Lewis-Faupel is vice-president of regional outreach for the Brandeis chapter of STAND, which is a national student movement that has helped to raise over $1 million in aid. The Brandeis chapter alone is responsible for raising over $2,000, and they helped put together a huge rally in Boston, which Sean himself co-chaired. STAND is now working to encourage Brandeis and the state of Massachusetts to stop investing in companies that help fund the ongoing violence.

After the World War II, the world swore that genocide would never happen again. But they underestimated how easily people separate themselves from a problem that seems far away. We let genocide take place in Cambodia, Iraq, Bosnia and Rwanda, and neither the press nor the government gave these human exterminations enough attention until it was too late.

To those of you who are still reading this, thanks-I guess people do read articles about Darfur, after all.