As a singer, I have come to accept my role on stage as a temporary
opportunity to make a lasting impression. It's sometimes challenging when
you are in another country and singing in a language many might not
know. However, the language of our heart is a universal one, and it was
with my heart I wore a Team Darfur sweatband when I performed at the
closing ceremonies at the Special Olmpics in Shanghai, China. Until I was
asked to sing for the Special Olympics, I must admit I didn't know that
much about them. Being from Massachusetts, ofcourse I knew the whole
Eunice Kennedy Shriver connection, but until I actually experienced it
first hand, I had no idea the heart and soul that lived and breathed
within this organization. The extraordinary athletes that made the Special
Olympics so extraordinarily "special" ~ and the ceremonies, like the
games themselves, were like nothing I had ever experienced before. They
literally built the stage I was to sing on before the audiences eyes
within minutes. There must have been thousands of workers behind the
scenes, and for the thousands of people gathered there before us, it was
evident that the spirit of the special olympians had spilled over into the
spirit of every single person there. It was one of the most emotional
and heartwarming evenings I have ever experienced, and with that said,
it causes one with a beating heart to wonder, "If a country as
overwhelmingly powerful and creative as China has the ability to dazzle an
audience of thousands in a matter of minutes by creating absolutely nothing
into something unforgettable and extraordinary as they did that night
with the closing cermonies of the Special Olympics, SURELY it could do
more for the people who are suffering in Darfur."  I wore the Team
Darfur sweatband that beautiful evening in Shanghai in the hopes that
somehow, somewhere, it might awaken within someone, someday, to an innervoice
that reminds us all of a greater and more powerful purpose. Greater
than any olympic game, is the beating heart within every human being who
plays or watches it. In every single life there is an olympic spirt, a
soul that yearns to express itself freely. We live in a time where so
many among us have simply forgotten who we really are, and why we came
to be. If we could but stop for a moment, if we could collectively
breathe for a moment and simply listen for a moment... We might hear a
sacred and universal voice that speaks to us not through the mind, but
through the heart. And its understood in every imagineable language, because
its born of the very chord that unites and connects us all. It would
whisper to us, that the greatest gold we can ever hold, is not in any
olympic medal, but in the hand of another human being. And that gold is
priceless and found in every hand. And it deserves to be held, in every
place on earth. We are all on a stage, wether we're in China, or in
Darfur. Our time on it is temporary, but we have the ability to leave a
lasting, and unforgettable impression if we choose to. Remember our great
worth, remember Darfur.                      Jimmy Demers,
www.jimmydemers.com   recording artist and the first to wear a Team Darfur
sweatband in China ( at the closing ceremonies for the Special Olympics World
Games 2007 ) .