Call me a bleeding heart….
Call me a shameless idealist….
Call me an aspiring altruist…
But do NOT call me a dreamer.
What I want, what I strive for should not be a distant dream- it should be a reality. It will be a reality if the ignorant, the privileged and the responsible would get their heads out of the clouds.
Disclaimer:My purpose is not to offend anyone, my purpose is to speak to the unspoken, chosen ignorance exercised by so many.
So often I encounter the ignorant and the jaded and feel at a loss…. what can I say to change their mind? what is an affective response?
Admittedly when “these” opinions are shared …I fake-laugh them off or roll my eyes and give the temporary cold shoulder or remove myself from the situation- granted none of these are affective.
But what is affective?
If I begin to explain what I do I encounter 1 of 4 scenarios.
1st: “Wow- good for you. I could never do that.”
2nd: eyes glazed, “oh here we go!” expression
3rd: “It is their problem, we have our own problems.”- sometimes not in so many words.
4th: mockery- ex. wasted food- “Brittnei would you like me to send these mashed potatoes to Haiti?”
Everyday I speak to young people- empowering them to make a change, make an effort, do SOMETHING to improve OUR future. I am proud of what I am doing, I am passionate and I am driven- I strive to recognize the change we are making, I strive to remain hopeful but every so often I grow FRUSTARTED with the masses.
Why is it the work of few to convince the masses that it is our RESPONSIBILITY to take care of each other?
How have our massive become so apathetic, so blissfully ignorant that our world could crumble around them and they would question “Why Me?” not “What can I do to help my neighbour?”
I humbly stand in a line of believers with the same quest for a different reality:
If you give to the poor, your needs will be supplied! But a curse upon those who close their eyes to poverty.Prov. 28:27
Give fair judgment to the poor man, the afflicted, the fatherless, the destitute. Psa 82:4 Rescue the poor and helpless from the grasp of evil men. Psa. 82:3
Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor waunderer with shelter- when you see the naked, to cloth him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Isaiah 58:7
“ Be the Change you wish to see in the world”- Ghandi
An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“No person is an island of themselves. Everyone person is a piece of the continent a part of the main”
“In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.”
- Confucius
It terrifies me to think that we live on a continent that is “every person for themselves.”
There is always an exception to the rule, I work with these exceptions, I have met and come to love so many of these expectations in throughout my travels….
but I don’t want US to be an exception anymore.
I am committing myself to destroying the apathy, the ignorance and the entitlement of our population.
Who will join me?
No comments:
Post a Comment