College students pride themselves on being the most optimistic, innovative, and take-action demographic in this country. Our generation in particular is said to be more committed to solving social injustices than any generation before us. Yet it seems as if Cornell students, for the most part, have lost their giddy enthusiasm and unrelenting optimism. Despite the abundance of student organizations committed to service, a sense of apathy and a degree of ignorance seem to dominate the campus atmosphere.

Today marks the beginning of “Break the Silence” Congo week, providing you and your peers a chance to reconnect with your activist roots. Over the next five days, more than 30 countries and 100 university campuses will unite to participate in activities in hopes of spreading awareness and mobilizing humanitarian action in response to the atrocities occurring in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The student-run organization, Cornellians for the Congo, is taking the initiative on campus to create a socially-aware and educated student body, one that I believe does not sit back and allow such inhumanity to persist. So don’t turn the page and shrug your shoulders at the thought of reading yet another story about the horror in the horror that is Africa. Break through your “out of sight, out of mind” approach and face the world with dignity.

Over the past ten years, more people have died in the DRC than anywhere else in the world, making it the deadliest conflict since World War II. Yes, that’s more deaths than Darfur, more than Iraq, and more than Rwanda. That said, I do not intend to belittle the crimes and cruelties that have engulfed these other war zones, but rather seek to shed light on our inexcusable ignorance.

After massacring 800,000 Tutsis in Rwanda, psychologically damaged Hutus fled across the Rwandan border into the DRC. Largely in response to this refugee overload, war broke out in the Congo in 1996, eventually involving so many nations that it became known as Africa’s World War. The war destroyed all existing infrastructure, destabilized the economy, and eliminated all forms of law and justice in the country. Despite numerous cease-fires and “attempts” by the U.N. to facilitate peace agreements, anarchy is currently the rule of the land, and rebel militia groups and government troops engage in nonstop combat.

The eastern Congo is notoriously reputed as the sex-based violence capital of the world, as rape has become a norm and the preferred weapon of war; after all, women and girls are cheaper than bullets. Many insist that rape is the most ancient weapon of war; its nothing new, and therefore can’t be stopped. Yet the barbarism and brutality that pervades the Congo is grotesque and inhumane, defining rape in unprecedented terms.

Date rape and non-consensual sex is a frequent topic of discussion on college campuses. However, having too much to drink followed by morning-after regrets is not close to the brutality occurring in the Congo. There, three-year-old girls and 75-year-old grandmothers have been gang-raped with gun-barrels, sticks, and knives, used as sex slaves, and abandoned by families that consider them “soiled.”

Currently 70 percent of Congolese women and girls have been raped or sexually mutilated at least once, frequently to a degree where intensive pelvic reconstructive surgery is needed in order for basic bodily functions to work. With rape occurring with impunity, and little to no education system to keep young boys from becoming child soldiers or joining rebel groups, a genocide against women has become the status quo. And somehow, silence still dominates our political consciousness.

The Cornellians for the Congo seek to establish leadership and educational opportunities in the Congo in hopes of building a class of educated Congolese youth who will be able to rise above these atrocities and re-stabilize their country. This week, we hope to educate Cornell students on the epidemic in the Congo and mobilize a committed core of students to take action.

Shed your cynicism, chuck your apathy out the window, and leave your “ignorance is bliss” attitude behind. It is time to take action and live up to your college student persona. Though your economic future may be shaky, your post-graduation job opportunities likely diminished, and the legitimacy of your nation questionable, one thing is sure: however detrimental the past month may have been to your wallet or your bank account, you still have the resources, the brains, and the capabilities to make a difference in the lives of others. The only question is if you have the drive.

So this week, take a break from your books or your beer and come get involved. Find any cause, whether it’s the Congo, the election, or the extinction of polar bears; use the immense resources that Cornell has provided you, and expose your inner zealot.

Carolyn Witte is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. She is a contributing columnist at The Sun. Carolyn can be reached at cwitte@cornellsun.com.