I look around my house, and am disgusted. I see a fully-stocked fridge, a flat screen television, and closets full of clothes. The ironic part? We aren't considered well-off, not even close. I sit here typing this on my mother's computer because mine is too slow. I think of my selfishness and I want to spit.
As I check my email, I see tons of advertisements for children who need food, and people who are enslaved. I think to myself, how sad, and sign a petition. Rarely do I think, there are people in this world who cannot even walk because of their physical weakness. People who walk miles and miles to find clean water. People who are raped continuously because someone found them as an amenity. You hear these things as well, but do you listen? Do you hear the millions crying out for help? The millions whom to us are just that-millions. They are a number. We don't acknowledge that the little girl dying of AIDS isn't some prostitute, but in fact, a victim of a father who raped her because he believed it would cure his illness. The saddest part of these statistics? They didn't know any better.
The sickening part of that reality is that we're just like that man. We cause pain through our indifference. We might throw a few coins in a red bucket outside Wal-Mart, but do we really care? Do we care that people are dying everyday? They are dying of things that are simply nuisances to us. What if you were African? What if you were Thai? What if you were Chinese?
We are so blessed to live where we live. We are so blessed to have what we have, but what about them? Most of the time, it's not their fault. They are victims for a reason. They are victims because someone is yet to save them.
I'm not saying that you should sell all your possessions and buy a one-way ticket to Africa, but you can if you want to. I'm saying we all have talents. We all have hearts. We all have something missing. We all have something to give. We can give our attention-our minds and souls. We can stop looking at the cute dying African children and saying, "aw." We can start looking at them and saying, "their parents are dead." "They wake up in incredible pain everyday." "They don't know where there next meal is coming from." "They don't know how long they are going to live." As sad as it is, that's the truth-the cold heart truth. We live in a sad, sad world, but unlike those children, we can do something about it.
I'm ready to start a revolution. I'm not asking for your money. I'm not asking for your friendship. I'm asking you to take a minute to step out of your life and just care. Care about the tragedies of this world. Care about the injustice. Care about the broken. Care about the abused. Care about those that are faceless, nameless. I agree with Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, when he said. "Indifference, to me, is the epitome of evil."
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