窶弩ould you sign your signature on our petition?窶�
Today, I joined in the signature campaign as a part of the activity of the Amnesty International. Amnesty International is based on the grass-roots activity. We usually write a letter to the dictators to ask him to stop the human rights violations. But today, in order to promote the recognition of the problem, we set the table in front of the cafeteria and appealed it for the students. We had three different types of petitions; two of those are about releasing political prisoner in Myanmar, the other is for the protection of the gay rights in Honduras. These will be sent to the dictators and urge them to stop the violation against fundamental human rights.

We had it both lunch time and dinner time; it was just two or three hours, but we got great many numbers of signatures. It would show the high interests for these issues among the students. I sometimes explained what we are doing for. Most students showed us their understanding and acceptance and were willingly to have signed their name.
I was thinking about if we do the same thing in Japan, how many people will sign the petition. Although there are many students at Waseda, the number of students might be not as many as here. In my case, I will make sure if the organization is authorized or not. It sounds silly, but I think it is inevitable in Japan.

Faculty advisor, John Chaimov, said to me that these petitions will definitely be sent to the dictators, but the dictators will send it to the shredder soon without checking it out. Unfortunately, I cannot deny his opinion and I do think so. Our efforts could be meaningless. However, wouldn窶冲 it really make any senses? I don窶冲 think so. Here is a famous and impressive saying on the broacher for the Amnesty International. It is kind of long, but I would like you to introduce it. "When the first two hundred letters came, the guards gave me back my clothes. Then the next two hundred letters came, and the prison director came to see me. When the next pile of letters arrived, the director got in touch with his superior. The letters kept coming and coming: three thousand of them. The President was informed. The letters still kept arriving, and the President called the prison and told them to let me go." (A released prisoner of conscience from the Dominican Republic.)

One individual doesn窶冲 have any big powers, however, once these individual powers are gathered, it becomes a great significant power. The activity itself does make sense. Signing petition doesn窶冲 take much time, just 10 or 20 seconds. Why don窶冲 you do it?