No not Jennifer...

Angelina.

I knew she was awesome. I knew she was beautiful. Those reasons aside I can completely see why Brad Pitt would be with her than that other chick.

I just read the Newsweek article on AJ and her travels as a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR. It moved me to tears. Well actually the pictures did. Then I went to the website and read some of her words from her journals, going all the way back to her first trip. Six years ago, without cameras, without media, without recognition. She wanted to do it not as a Star acting like she was doing something but as someone who puts on her backpack, climbs onto a commercial plane, and gets her hands dirty by helping. By building. By caring. Now she takes the cameras, not to be in the spotlight, but because she knows the more we look at her, the more we look at them. The children, the people, the REFUGEES, who are living only to survive. Not giving up, not faltering because they have nothing, but because they want to survive. If not for them, but for future generations. They want to survive, to live. She is there, helping. Bringing the real news of the situations there to everyone who will listen.

The picture gallery was so sad. The little boy who got lost when he was 3 and saw the damage the bombings can do first hand at such a young age has lost all of his innocence, and is just a scared person trapped inside a little boys body. His mother has to tie him to a tent pole to make sure he doesn't get away and hurt himself, or worse...while she tries to eek out a meager living. Pretty much nothing compared to even the lowest income here.

Can you imagine living on a dirt floor, only in a tent, with no running water, no electricity, no real shelter from the desert, the elements, the animals. Snakes, spiders, ants, among the many other crawlies. Having to deal with sickness that may or may not be treated in time, not because you hate to go to the Dr. but because their aren't enough or any at all. Can you imagine living in a world where bombs are an every day occurrence? Where your children will forever be damaged from the trauma, emotionally, physically, and mentally. It's something you never outgrow.

She is there fighting a fight that not many are willing to wage. She pays her own way where she goes. She gets in and does what she can. She goes alone for the most part, trying to make a dent, even if it is tiny.

There is not much anyone can do as one person, but together as a community we can do a lot. We can write letters to our leaders to get some aid where it is really needed. We can buy the voices of Darfur DVD, and lend a little support. We can take part in our community's World Refugee day on June 20th, or the one closest to us. There is so much that can be done. There is so many people who are trying to live to just survive. Money here is different compared to money there. What we live on for a month...take that back, what I lived on for a month as a single parent, going to school, raising a child...could carry a family there for a whole lot longer.

So why are so many people so willing to turn their backs, expect someone else to do it. Someone else to write a letter. Why are so many willing to say, it's not my problem, they need to get better jobs. Why are so many willing to just forget the faces of the people living to survive in places such as Darfur.

Looking at the pictures, seeing her as a person instead of a celebrity has made her even more beautiful to me. She's not trashy, she's not icky as I have heard. She's grown up into a woman who is willing to do what she can to try to make it a little easier to live to survive.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17540069/site/newsweek/