In an ethics class recently we discussed the ability of photos to inspire people to action against injustice. One student mentioned Susan Sontag and her argument in On Photography that photographs are not enough to inspire us to act. I wonder if it is because photographs that show human suffering are not accompanied with ideas about what we can do personally to end that suffering. The New York Times published some horrific photos of the dead and suffering in Sudan last month in an editorial, hoping to spur some of us to action. I'd hate to think that we are so uncreative as to feel sick of the inhumanity of that suffering for a moment, then continue on our way with a shrug. That is the true inhumanity: to be aware of another's suffering and not act at all to end it.