Progressive Wednesday

Instant Karma’s gonna get ya…

Besides being the greatest tune John Lennon inked post-Beatles, Instant Karma is a campaign being waged by Amnesty International to help stop the genocide in Darfur. Officially called “Instant Karma: The Campaign to Save Darfur,” the project is fairly simple in its action, fairly Incredible-Hulk-powerful in its aim.

As we noted on a previous Wednesday, the situation in Darfur, Sudan isn’t “a situation” at all: it’s a mass-killing, a raping and pillaging, and a starvation of innocent and helpless Sudanese people. In short, it’s one of the most horrific human rights catastrophe imaginable. And it’s happening while much of the world watches at best, ignores at worst.

So Amnesty International has teamed with Yoko Ono and 50 musical artists to record an album of Lennon’s songs. But it’s not limited to the music. The music is simply a vehicle calling for action.

According to the site:

The CD, “Instant Karma: The Campaign to Save Darfur,” [was] released by Warner Brothers Records and [arrived] in stores the week of June 12th. Additional singles from the album [were] released leading up to the full album, along with special product offers coupled with opportunities to take action. Proceeds derived from the entire campaign will go directly to support Amnesty International’s urgent work on Darfur and other human rights crises worldwide.

So you’ll get a disc with phenomenal covers of phenomenal songs, and you’ll help protect the innocent. Three of the songs — covered by Green Day, R.E.M., and Los Lonely Boys — are available for download through iTunes.

But if you swing by the site, you can do even more by taking simple actions of your own. From the Instant Karma “Take Action” page, you can sign a petition to President Bush urging him to use the UN to create a peacekeeping force that can protect the people of Darfur and of Chad, and to take the necessary actions to stabilize the region. You can also write your Senators and Representative in Congress to do several things in their power, not the least of which is funding the necessary peacekeepers. You can also join Amnesty International — it’s easy, trust us.

So, in short, look for the album in stores or in iTunes (I hear Regina Spektor’s cover of “Real Love” kicks some). Sign the petition. Write your members of Congress. Protect innocent people suffering atrocities we could only concoct in our worst nightmares. Let’s not wait a moment longer. It shouldn’t take another 300,000 people slaughtered to finally wake up.

Photo c/o this imaginative picture-clicker.