Sure, it’s interesting to watch State House politicians scream at one another over nothing. But it’s a pleasure to see them stand together for something important.

Governor Carcieri never spoke truer words than he did last week when he cited the “horrific” images of genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan and declared, “It’s imperative that each and every one of us do our part to try and stop this terrible inhumanity.”

The occasion was a ceremony to call attention to legislation passed by the 2007 General Assembly to withdraw state pension funds from companies doing business with Sudan.

The measure, sponsored by Rep. Joseph Almeida and Sen. Rhoda Perry, was promoted by General Treasurer Frank Caprio and a corps of college students.

Carcieri, a Brown University international relations major in the 1960s, thanked Scott Warren, a Brown junior who also is majoring in that field, for coordinating the campaign. The governor declared, “It’s the kind of cause that is excellent for a young person like yourself to champion.”

The violence in Darfur generated by Sudanese officials and carried out by Janjaweed militias it arms has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions. The world knows of the slaughter and largely turns its back. Caprio traced his interest in Darfur’s cause to lessons he learned as a youngster listening to a Holocaust survivor who spoke at his school. The message was: Never again. But Caprio declared, “What’s going on in the Sudan is exactly that.”

Democrat Almeida, critical of Republican Carcieri on state budget issues, relished joining him on this occasion. “He is decent. He is a good guy,” Almeida told me. As for why Carcieri goes astray on other fronts, Almeida said he needs to get better advice.

President Bush has ordered economic sanctions to pressure Sudan’s government. Warren, whose dad works for the State Department, says of Bush & Co., “They’ve done more than any other government in the world, but they’ve done too little.”

He says the United States must push the international community to do more to isolate Sudan economically and to send in United Nations peacekeepers. He wants Mr. Bush to join leaders of France and Britain in going to Africa to visit Darfur refugees.

Carcieri was right on in mentioning horrific images of genocide. Indeed, if the world needs any more graphic evidence, it need only turn to a new documentary called The Devil Came on Horseback. (Janjaweed means devil on a horse.)

It focuses on former U.S. Marine Brian Steidle, who’d been in Darfur as an unarmed military observer and taken almost 1,000 pictures and who became a spokesman of conscience in trying to mobilize world opinion.

The photos, footage, and sound will shake you. Homes in flames. Charred bodies. Words from Steidle like, “They cut the ears off and pluck the eyes out.” And a reference to buzzing — “like high voltage power lines”— from armies of flies swirling around dead people and animals.

But it’s not just Steidle’s accounts. You also hear other voices, such as refugees who say:

• “From our village they killed 21 people. Three of them are my little brothers.”

• “They killed my father, my brother, and three of my aunts.”

• “I lost three brothers, four uncles, and I lost my daughter.”

It’s haunting. Steidle says, “I’m going to continue to talk until no one will listen any more.”

Are you listening?

You can learn more about the documentary at www.thedevilcameonhorseback.com.

M. Charles Bakst is The Journal’s political columnist.

mbakst@projo.com