Here at the Freedom Center, we often talk about impediments to freedom in the modern world. We call them the “unfreedoms,” and they are six in number:

• Hunger
• Illiteracy
• Contemporary forms of slavery
• Racism
• Tyranny
• Genocide

That last unfreedom, genocide, is the subject of a very thoughtful column by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. He raises the issue of whether world leaders (who obviously confront dozens of persistent, often intractable problems) have pushed genocide down the list of global priorities.

What is genocide? The term came into general use in 1944, in the midst of World War II and the Holocaust. It means the systematic murder of an entire political, cultural, or religious group, usually sponsored or encouraged by a government entity.

Kristof, the Times columnist, is perhaps the leading journalistic voice decrying what he describes as genocide in the Darfur region of Africa, where thousands of Darfurian men, women and children — virtually all of them Muslims — have been brutalized, tortured and annihilated in an ongoing conflagration with no apparent end in sight. Yet, Kristof writes, with so many other crushing issues to deal with, like poverty, AIDS, and looming ecological disaster, most of the world not only is paying little attention to Darfur, but has shown no particular desire to stop what is happening.

We would welcome your reactions to Kristof’s column. With so many other things to worry about, is it acceptable to push Darfur off the world’s radar screen?