Children are suffering. More than I can count.
For lack of clean water, or food, or vaccines to prevent hideous disease.
I have a son, 3 years old, light of my life.
I couldn’t bear the same happen to him.
By random chance, one father was born here, and another there. The same except for place; connected. Were I the parent of the suffering child, what would I have my middle class double in America do?
Continue streaming House of Cards, munching caramel popcorn and sipping Diet Coke? No, I would have him give: a care, a dollar, a voice. I would beg him to fly over with supplies, with compassion, to tackle these problems head-on, even at personal cost.
But as the middle class parent, I’m comfortable. With my movies, snacks, air conditioning, and recliner. What’s my incentive to act? Am I to give up all my comforts, redirect all my efforts to solving these global problems, and encourage all I know to do the same? The moral answer, though it may be uncomfortable: yes.
They talk of circles of influence: the wise pour their energy into that which they can control. While my circle may be limited, collectively, we have the power to team up to achieve results undreamed of.
I'm no criminal: the law protects my decision to buy a $5 latte instead of giving the money to charity. But I live with the consequences: guilty feelings that I don’t deserve good things while others suffer. I’m experiencing the disparity between the desire to help, and the reluctance to give up the comforts that have defined my life to date. Tell me, do you ever feel this way, too?
