Every armed conflict that has ever taken place, every war that has ever been fought and every genocide that has ever broken out has all occurred because of our absolute refusal to accept the fact that we are all part of the same human family. Even though it appears on the surface that wars are waged because of territorial disputes or demands for natural resources, it all actually comes down to a total lack of acceptance by one nationality or ethnic group of another. Our all consuming need to divide and conquer based on nothing more than an illogical hatred of one faction or group has led to unending suffering and misery throughout mankind’s brutal history. 

Millions of innocent human beings have been slaughtered for no more reason than that they seemed dissimilar to those who were willing to kill them because of the color of their skin or because they worshipped a different God or because their political beliefs were difficult to understand. Countless others have been injured and left as homeless refugees having lost everything to the vagaries of power-hungry individuals who were more than willing to enslave and subjugate entire populations for their own selfish desires. Women and children have been endlessly exploited because they have been consistently viewed as inferior to those who were abusing them. The complete willingness of one race or nation to enslave or eliminate those they disagree with has led to the darkest chapters of human history. 

One of the most disturbing aspects of our violent past is that we have not learned from our mistakes. We continue to make the same misjudgments over and over again. We travel down the same roads of ignorance and intolerance puffed up with erroneous feelings of superiority which clouds our thinking to the point that we no longer have a firm grasp of reality as it pertains to the rest of humanity. We set ourselves apart as if we are more important or special than the other 7 billion human beings who share the earth. We are convinced that we are part of God’s master plan that ensures we are to be prosperous and victorious in all things even if it means trampling on the dreams of others. We believe we are the chosen ones.  

But it is not true. There are no “chosen ones”. No one group of human beings is superior in any way to any other group. We are all equal. We all have the same human rights, which includes the right not to be harmed by others. Until humanity accepts the basic fact of equality for all races, genders, political persuasions and religious affiliations we are doomed to repeat the horror that our species has struggled with for centuries. It is distressing that we are unable to perceive or acknowledge such an obvious truth as equality. It makes us highly susceptible to endlessly repeating the same behaviors that have destroyed entire civilizations. How can we be so unwilling to open our eyes and realize that we are all on this planet at the same moment in time, trying to survive in the best way that we can and that we all share the same basic needs and desires for ourselves and our loved ones?  

Our steadfast refusal to treat every person with the same dignity and respect that we believe we deserve has helped to cause and perpetuate the heartbreak and shame of extreme poverty. Our tragic acceptance of the continuing lie that some races, cultures or societies are inferior to ours prevents us from taking action to alleviate the death and suffering that so many face every day of their lives. It is particularly sickening that we stand by and allow more than 9 million children to die each year from hunger, preventable diseases and treatable illnesses all because we do not consider them to be worth saving. As harsh as that sounds it must be the case or otherwise we would intervene on their behalf and save their lives. But we don’t. They are not like us. They are the wrong color. We do not understand their language or belief systems, therefore we have no problem letting them die.  

People become defensive when they are accused of not caring. They are unwilling to admit that they don’t value the life of a black child in Ethiopia in the same way that they value the life of a white child in Indiana. They become indignant when they are accused of being selfish, short sighted or narrow minded, but these labels sting because they know they are true and too often “the truth” is not what we want to hear. But in the case of extreme poverty, refusing to face reality kills 30,000 human beings every 24 hours. That is 1,000,000 dead in just 34 days. That is a devastating price to pay to perpetuate lies that cover up our total disregard for fellow human beings in a order to assuage our feelings of guilt and culpability. 

We must admit our shortcomings and failings in order to overcome them. We cannot continue to allow one billion people to struggle in the filth and deprivation of poverty because we do not consider them to be equal human beings. They cannot die because of our stupidity. We must find it within ourselves to accept the reality of life on this planet. We cannot hide behind national flags or religious intolerance anymore. We cannot despise someone to the point that we will let innocent children die because we do not approve of the color of their skin. We cannot kill, starve, abuse or neglect any population because we are too lazy to make the effort to reach out and try to understand them as opposed to just bombing them into submission. We must learn to value and embrace the sanctity of life from the moment of conception to the final breath for every living thing on earth. There can be no exclusions or deviations. We must finally, once and for all, use our intellectual capacity to understand the overwhelming human need for simple compassion.  

EXTREME POVERTY FLOURISHES BECAUSE OF OUR INABILITY TO ACCEPT THE FACT THAT WE ARE ALL EQUAL MEMBERS OF THE HUMAN FAMILY.

mikecrawley@cox.net

WATCHING HIS CHILD DIE WAS KILLING HIM.

All through the night his daughter’s fever would rage and then suddenly she would shake violently with chills. Her small head throbbed with a stabbing pain that made her cry incessantly. At times she seemed to be slipping away, but then she would fight back and be with him again, only to endure more suffering. Each time she closed her beautiful brown eyes he feared she would never open them again. Her tiny body was continually racked by spasms of agony, but there was nothing he could do except hold her. From time to time she cried out for her dead mother, but it was wasted breath.

She was only three and yet she had already suffered so much in her short life. Her body was ravaged by hunger. Her time on this earth had been filled with constant sickness. Several times he had almost lost her. But each time she had become ill, she had fought valiantly to stay alive against overwhelming odds. But not this time. She had been worn down by the repeated misery of poverty. Without immediate medical help and nutritious food she had no chance.

In the area where they lived, death permeated the air. He saw it everyday on the faces of other adults who had lost their children. The pain was raw and unending. Some simply gave up and soon joined their deceased loved ones. A sense of desperation was everywhere. The frustration of not being able to care for your children was overwhelming. There was no where to turn. There was no help available……The man had heard rumors of great countries in the West that would send food and medicine to Africa, but he had never actually witnessed such a thing. At the age of 26 the misery in his life had been unrelenting. But the pain his daughter was going through now was breaking his heart. However, she was just one of many – too many to count – who was facing death all because of a simple mosquito bite. Malaria preyed on the young and weak. His daughter was the perfect victim.

As he stared into her soft brown eyes, tears filled his. Why couldn’t someone help her? Wasn’t there anyone who could send medicine? He would gladly pay them back for the rest of his life. He was sure someone would help if they only knew how sweet and smart his little girl was……But there would be no help, just as there was no help for his beautiful wife and infant son when the birth became difficult and both mother and child died. And now his fragile little girl, who was all he had left in the world, was slipping through his fingers.

He had struggled with all his might to take care of his pregnant wife and their small daughter, but the devastating challenges of extreme poverty were over powering. The area where they lived was suffering through a severe drought that had lasted for several years. Various militias clashed repeatedly over territory, with civilians often caught in the crossfire. The constant fighting had created thousands of refugees. These factors all combined to produce hunger and disease on a scale that he could not fight. He often felt ashamed that he could not provide for his family. His dignity had been stripped away. When his wife and son died he knew it was his fault for not being able to get them medical care. And now it was happening again. His precious little girl was dependent on him for everything, but he could not provide anything. The guilt he felt as a father was unbearable. He didn’t understand the disease that was killing her, but he knew that there must have been something he could’ve done to prevent it. He was suppose to take care of her. He was suppose to protect her. But now he was holding her and watching her die.

His cherished daughter would soon become another faceless statistic of extreme poverty. She would be one of the millions of dead children that year under the age of five. As he held her tightly for what would be the last time, people on the other side of the world were shopping in malls, eating at nice restaurants and going back to their comfortable homes to watch 200 cable channels, none of which would tell the story of his little girl. Perhaps her life meant nothing to those in far off lands, but to him it meant everything. He did not think he could go on without her. Losing the last member of his family was the final outrage of a life filled with sorrow.

It was dawn. The sun was just barely visible on the horizon when his little girl took her last breath. She died in his arms. As he cradled her lifeless body and stroked her hair he sobbed as he thought about how he would never see her smile again or hear her laugh. She was gone and so was all the love and possibilities she could have brought to the world. The anguish he felt was more than any human could stand. His world was shattered, his spirit was crushed. Everyone he loved was dead. His weeping slowly became a loud cry of anger. How could this keep happening? Why had his family been singled out for such misery? What had they done to deserve such suffering?…… WHY COULDN’T SOMEONE HELP THEM?

His little girl had closed her eyes for the last time. It was the heartbreaking end of her all too brief time in this life.

25,000 OTHER CHILDREN CLOSED THEIR EYES FOR THE LAST TIME THAT SAME DAY, AS AN UNCARING WORLD PAID NO NOTICE.

If you would like to help raise awareness about extreme poverty please link http://stopextremepoverty.com/ to your Facebook page or web site.

Thank you.

LEARNING TO KILL CHANGES A PERSON FOREVER.

Although small for his age, Samir held the AK-47 steady. He had been given a direct order to shoot the old woman in front of him, and he didn’t dare make a mistake. He had no idea why she had to die, but that was not his concern. She knelt on the ground sobbing for her life, however, her pleas did not move him. He calmly put the muzzle 12 inches from her head and fired a short burst. After many months in the militia he was now a trained soldier who could commit murder without remorse. The old woman had a ring on her finger and he knew he would lose his food rations if he did not turn it in to his commander. He tried to pull if off but it wouldn’t budge, so he used his knife and removed the finger with the ring still on it. The old woman was way past feeling any pain, and he did not want to give up his food that evening.

Learning to kill had not been easy. Up until the time Samir was forced into the militia he had never harmed anyone. His parents were dead so the soldiers gave him the option of joining up or watching them rape and kill his two older sisters. He joined – his sisters lived. It was not a difficult decision. After a few months he went on his first raid, attacking a small village in order to steal their meager food supplies. Most of the villagers were unarmed, but one man suddenly burst out of a hut and charged at him with a machete. Samir aimed his Kalashnikov, but his finger froze on the trigger. Just as the man was about to swing his weapon another soldier shot him in the back of the head. The dead man fell at Samir’s feet. The soldiers all laughed at his cowardice, and they ridiculed him for his unwillingness to fire, but then they warned him that if it ever happened again he would be severely punished. Samir believed them because he had seen what had happened to others who did not perform their duties. Sometimes they just disappeared, but often they had their hands severed to make sure they could never fight for a rival gang.

Several weeks later he was ordered to kill for the first time. It was the simple execution of an infant. He was shaking so badly he could hardly aim his weapon…but he had to do it. The threat on his sisters’ lives still stood, and now he had seen first hand what the soldiers could do to a girl. He struggled with all his might to hold back tears as he aimed at the helpless baby on the ground. His commander had made it clear that he would be beaten if he cried. He paused, took a deep breath and fired a single round into the bundle of flesh. The infant’s body was torn apart. Samir lowered his smoking gun and looked at what he had done. The soldiers would have to beat him because he could not help but sob.

Since he had exposed his aversion to murder he was considered less valuable than the other boys who showed no hesitation in killing. Being expendable meant his main role became that of a human shield. Anytime the leaders thought they might be entering a dangerous situation he was required to walk point. If someone was going to attack them he was the bait. On the first couple of missions he was terrified, but after months of being in danger he had become resigned to his fate. An exhausting numbness had set in. He had seen so much death and suffering, some of it from his own hand, that he no longer felt the same level of shame and guilt that he once had. In the beginning he’d kept track of the number of people he executed but eventually he quit because he didn’t want to think about what he was doing.

Samir had been in the militia for 24 months, and he thought he had committed every evil act a human being was capable of, until he was forced to take part in a gang rape. His participation was limited to holding the girl down while the older soldiers took turns, but it was sickening just the same. When they were finally done he was afraid he would be ordered to shoot her, but rather than waste the ammunition one of the senior officers pulled out his knife and slit her throat. There was a brief gurgling sound and then silence. He couldn’t help but think about how he was in this position now so that the same fate would not happen to his sisters…but he knew this girl was someone’s sister, and what he had helped them do to her was unspeakable.

That was the turning point for Samir. His mental state began to deteriorate. He no longer cared who he hurt or who he killed. Young or old, weak or defenseless he could now murder helpless human beings without giving it a second thought. His humanity had been drained away, and he had become a cold-blooded killer. He knew he would never see his sisters again, which meant he would never know if his decision to join the militia had actually saved their lives, but he knew in his heart it had cost him his. There was no turning back now.

It was another raid on another village. There had been rumors that a rival clan had weapons stored there. The buildings were to be burned, and any inhabitants that fought back were to be executed. As the assault began they encountered stiff resistance. As it turned out, the village did house weapons, and many of the people knew how to use them. The fighting was intense. It was hard to see because of all the smoke, and the continual gunshots made Samir’s ears ring, but he took aim and fired at anything that moved. After what seemed like an eternity one of the commanders made his way over to him and ordered Samir to maneuver around behind a row of huts on the west side of the village. He was to check and see if he could find where the weapons were being stored. Samir knew that attempting to get back there without being detected would be dangerous, but he had no choice, he had to obey. Trying not to be seen, he carefully made his way to the last hut. As he moved along the back wall the drifting smoke obscured his vision. Slowly the haze lifted and a small figure came into view. He had come face to face with another boy holding an automatic rifle. They were 15 feet apart. For one brief moment Samir froze – the other boy did not. His young enemy fired a burst of shells into his chest, and Samir’s lifeless body fell into the dirt.

One child had killed another child.

AT THE AGE OF TEN THE SOLDIER WAS DEAD.

If you would like to help raise awareness about extreme poverty please link http://stopextremepoverty.com/ to your Facebook page or web site.

Thank you.

There is not a single positive thing that can be said about hatred. It is utterly useless, without any benefit to humanity what-so-ever. In fact, it does more harm than any other human emotion. It is the basis for racial prejudice; it causes conflict and wars and even leads to genocide. It has plagued mankind down through the centuries and is, unfortunately, still present with us today. Entire empires have been built on hate, and always at the expense of the innocent human beings at which the hatred is directed. It can cause death and destruction on a massive scale, and it can lead to the most savage abuses of human rights.

Hate demeans and degrades both the victim and the perpetrator. The world would immediately undergo a dramatic improvement if people finally learned how pointless, useless and destructive hate really is. Imagine the swelling tide of peace that would develop between races, cultures and nations if we gave up the very idea of hating each other. It doesn’t have to be just a dream, we only need to correct our thinking and that will change the way we see the world.

Why do we hate? It is not logical to do so. It makes no sense, it serves no purpose, and yet we cling to an unfounded need to judge others, usually on a basis that has no real connection with reality. We hate simply because someone seems different. All of the misery in the world that is produced by hatred is a direct result of that single fact. We perceive that someone is not like us so we hate them. The perception itself, of course, is completely wrong.

While it is true that language, appearance and customs vary from culture to culture those are not the defining characteristics that make us human. Rather, it is our common need for love, respect and dignity that binds us together. It is the hope and desire for our children to live in peace, to enjoy good health and to live a life filled with purpose and accomplishment. These are the attributes that are universal. These are the traits that all of humanity shares. If we could begin to focus on our similarities and our common bonds instead of focusing only on our imagined differences we could begin to stem the tide of hatred that now consumes so much of our world.

Obviously, life is challenging enough without human beings making it even more difficult by practicing hatred at every level. Having the mindset that hating is an appropriate point of view leads to people feeling that they have to act out on this type of negative thinking, which is how wars start based on ethnic differences. That is how intelligent human beings can slip into a rationale that allows them to commit genocide. Hate literally poisons the mind. It distorts a person’s thinking to the point where they feel compelled to commit acts against others that are inconceivable to those who are not filled with such malevolence. Because of its destructive force, hatred should never be tolerated. It has no place in our world.

Sadly, hate plays a critical role in the persistence of extreme poverty. A large percentage of the deaths caused by hunger and disease are people of color. They are human beings who look different than us; they speak languages that are foreign to us and they lives in places we can’t find on a map. In every way they seem a million miles away, but to hate them for these reasons makes no sense. They can’t help what color of skin they have, they had no choice into which culture and language they were brought up in and they had no say in what part of the world they happened to be born in. To hate someone for any reason is wrong, but to hate people for reasons they had no control over is contemptible. Yet hatred between races, cultures and classes continues to flourish.

Until humanity learns to control its appetite for hate, extreme poverty will not be eliminated. As long as we are filled with hatred towards those we don’t understand we cannot be filled with the compassion necessary to reach out to those who are suffering. We must turn away from hate and embrace our fellow human beings with love – no matter what their color, where they might live or what their economic status might be. Each day we must be on guard against those who hate out of ignorance. We must stand up to those who, for whatever twisted reasoning, feel the need to promote their concepts of exclusion, bigotry and malice. We must confront those who threaten and intimidate the vulnerable.  We must always remember that hate destroys and that love saves.

TO BE FILLED WITH HATE ROBS YOU OF YOUR HUMANITY.

mikecrawley@cox.net

1,250 human beings will die from extreme poverty in the next hour. They die continuously at this rate, without let up, day after day. The dying does not slow down on weekends or on holidays. Death has no concern for age, race, religion or gender. No one is spared. It is a relentless grinding machine that is partially fueled by our indifference, selfishness and intolerance. 24 hours from right now 30,000 more will have died and we will pretend it didn’t happen. One week from now 210,000 people will be dead and we will not feel any sense of guilt about it. How can this be? How can death claim so many, so quickly, while we calmly go about our lives oblivious to the slaughter that is going on in the world?

In the next 34 days extreme poverty will kill one million human beings. That is more than the population of Detroit, Michigan. Imagine the nation’s reaction if every resident in that city died within one month. New York City has a population of 8,275,000. It only takes nine months for extreme poverty to kill that many people…so in the length of time it takes to give life to one human being more than 8 million lose their lives. Of course, the saddest part of this tragedy is that it doesn’t have to happen. We can prevent these deaths if we choose to – and we should. How can we be willing to bring up our children in a world where we casually standby and let millions needlessly die?

When it comes to the fight against extreme poverty the key to saving as many lives as possible is speed. We do not have the luxury of time. We cannot wait until we make more money to start donating. We cannot wait until we have more free time to start volunteering. We cannot wait until it is more convenient for us to start caring, and we certainly can’t wait for corporations or governments to take action. It is up to us and we have to start right now. Every minute we wait kills another 20 human beings. In the time it takes you to take a sip of coffee three people die. In the time it takes you to eat a meal 400 people die. In the time it takes you to watch a baseball game 3,750 die. During the 8 hours you are asleep another 10,000 perish. It never ends.

The numbers, however, tend to obscure the fact these are human beings just like you and me. These people have done absolutely nothing wrong and yet criminals are treated better than they are. It is inexcusable that we get to relax in comfort, and that we have “free time to kill” while millions are fighting frantically against time to save their families. Time is not a luxury afforded to those who have life spans of only 45 years. It is not a luxury afforded to millions of children who will die before the age of five, and it is certainly not a luxury afforded to the millions afflicted HIV/AIDS who desperately need medication. Time is the brutal enemy of those struggling in extreme poverty.

Today is the day we have to begin to change the world. Not tomorrow, not next week and not at a time of our choosing. It has to be right now. We must join together in a common effort with others around the world and take an immediate stand against the never ending crush of despair that cripples the lives of millions. We cannot hesitate. We cannot waiver. We must be decisive and move quickly to stem the tide of suffering that grips one billion people on this planet.   

We cannot afford to procrastinate or make excuses. We cannot wait for someone else to tackle the problem because the responsibility rests with us. Now is the time for us to demonstrate our resolve and commitment to making life better for millions of fellow human beings. Now is the time to stop thinking only of ourselves and begin to focus on those who so desperately need our help. Now is the time to realize that the 80 people who have died while you were reading this post were innocent human beings who had much to offer to the world.

For the first time in history we have the ability to eliminate extreme poverty. It won’t be easy, and it will be a long battle, but we must get started. Death will not wait on us. It will claim every victim it possibly can if we hesitate. There is simply no excuse that can absolve us of our responsibility to save every life possible. No matter what our financial circumstances we can all afford to make at least some kind of monetary contribution to a relief organization. Even if it is only $5.00 a month, that will help. For the cost of one pack of cigarettes or one fast food meal you can feed 20 starving children. Is that too much of a sacrifice to make when human life is at stake? We need to be as generous as we possibly can, and we need to do it now. Immediately.

SAVING PEOPLE FROM EXTREME POVERTY IS TRULY A RACE AGAINST TIME.

If you would like to help raise awareness about extreme poverty please link http://stopextremepoverty.com/ to your web site or Facebook page.

Thank you.

Can you remember what you did 40 days ago? Most of us can’t. In just over a month we forget what we were so preoccupied with, what we were so worried about and what pressures we were under. Whatever seemed so important just 6 weeks ago cannot even be recalled. We have moved on. There are new challenges and obstacles to face. Because time flies by so rapidly it blurs our memory of what, at the moment, seemed like absolutely critical situations that required immediate decisions and forced us to make difficult choices. 40 days – comprised of 960 hours – is just the blink of an eye in a typical life span. It is a length of time that we don’t really focus on. We tend to view segments in weeks or months. But the reason that 40 days is important is because that is how long it takes for one million children to die from extreme poverty.  

In this remarkably short interval of time one million families are devastated. Grieving mothers and fathers are forced to bury their beloved child who died, often before the age of five, from causes that could have been prevented or cured. This adds another level of misery and frustration to the already heartbreaking loss. To know that your child could have been saved if they had received proper nutrition, vaccines and medical attention is more than any parent should have to bear…but it is the reality that they are forced to deal with.  

The world has collectively decided that we will tolerate the death of one million innocent children over this brief span of time. We do this quite happily. It doesn’t seem to bother us at all. As long as our children are healthy we are unconcerned about those struggling to stay alive in poverty. We feel little guilt about a million deaths. We are able to continue leading comfortable lives of privilege without a thought for those who are forced to bury 25,000 children each day. How can this be? How can we be so calloused? How can we be so blasé about such heartrending death? How can we be more than willing to let it continue?  

To compress that much death into such a short amount of time makes it hard for us to truly grasp the magnitude of the tragedy. When we focus on numbers we tend to lose sight of the humanity involved. In this case we are talking about young helpless, defenseless children who are dying at a rate of more than 1,000 per hour. These are children just like yours. They love and laugh, they play and learn, they dream and hope. They want to grow up and accomplish things, they want to be important…but the wealthy countries of the world have decided they are not important. It has been determined that their lives are not worth saving. The decision has been made that they are not a priority. 

So what do we feel is more important than saving the lives of one million children? KILLING PEOPLE. Over a 40 day period the United States spends about 75 billion dollars on defense. ($75,000,000,000) It is a number so staggering that it’s difficult to comprehend. The point is that we think nothing of funding the military to the point of overkill at the expense of the young lives that could be spared if we just cut back even a small percentage. We simply believe, as a nation, that it is more important to be able to kill on a massive scale than it is to save the lives of the innocent. It is a decision we make each time we vote. It is a decision we make when we profit from military contracts. It is a decision we make when we meekly accept the judgment of our political leadership to commit our men and women in our military to the ravages of war. We, as a society, find it far easier to spend our money and resources taking life rather than saving life. 

Human beings are capable of complete extremes when it comes to how we value life. Over a 40 day period we will wage war and kill thousands but we will also try to rescue thousands in a natural disaster. We will execute inmates on death row and yet we will donate our organs so that someone else can live. We will have our pets euthanized so they will not suffer and at the same time we will try to deny people life saving surgery because they don’t have insurance. In America we will spend any amount of money and use every available technology to save the life of a premature infant but we will cheerfully let a child starve to death in the dirt on the other side of the world. It comes down to the fact that we will move heaven and earth to save our child, but we won’t lift a finger to save your child. 

Allowing one million children to die during the next 40 days is an atrocity. We have the money to save those lives. We have the technology, the resources, the transportation, the medical skill, the food, the water and the knowledge necessary to prevent these deaths. What is lacking is the will, the determination and the desire to do it. We all share in the responsibility of taking care of the vulnerable. It is up to each of us to do what we can to improve the world. What better way is there to start making this life more meaningful than by saving the lives of innocent children? 

Each of us has something to offer. We each have talents, abilities or financial resources that can make a dramatic difference in the lives of children everywhere. Use what you have. Determine the best way you can help and then do it. Don’t wait. Remember that more than 1,000 children die from extreme poverty while you watch your favorite hour-long TV show. One million die in the length of time you go between haircuts. It is shameful that in a world filled with everything we need to keep children safe and healthy we continue to refuse to use those tools to accomplish the simple goal of keeping them alive. To know that in just 40 days we will have let a million children needlessly die should make us feel sick, but chances are we will put that thought aside and continue to live in a vacuum that protects us from the harsh realities faced by one out of every six human beings on earth. We will buy the things we want and do the things we wish to do without consideration for the parents who will be digging graves for their dead babies. 

Enjoy the next 6 weeks of your life, but just remember that as you play with your children at the park, eat out, go to the movies, attend recitals and take in a sporting event, parents in extreme poverty are watching their children endure the last 6 weeks of their lives. Their young sons and daughters are fighting for every breath. They are struggling against all odds without pain killers or antibiotics. Their small bodies are being racked by diseases that we eliminated decades ago. Over the next 40 days they will experience horrors that we cannot even imagine…and none of it has to happen. It can all be prevented. We just have to decide that we will no longer tolerate the heartbreaking deaths of a million dead children in less than 1,000 hours. 

WILL YOU EVEN REMEMBER READING THIS 40 DAYS FROM NOW?

mikecrawley@cox.net

A refugee is anyone who leaves their home and their possessions in order to protect their physical well-being. Becoming a refugee is usually a last resort that occurs in the most desperate of situations that, unfortunately, changes their life forever. Obviously none of us would ever want to be forced to give up everything we have in this world, but tragically there are times when that decision must be made to ensure the safety of loved ones. Refugees are the walking wounded of the human race. They have lost so much and they are often left without hope. Their future can be bleak or uncertain at best. They are often forgotten by the rest of humanity as they suffer in mass out of sight and out of our consciousness.

At any given moment there are millions of refugees around the world. A significant percentage of this population is made up of women and children. Sadly, it is the innocent and most vulnerable who always seem to suffer in disproportionate measure. And what is even worse is the fact that many of the horrific circumstances that force large groups of human beings to flee for their lives are man-made. Far too often we are the culprits that displace hundreds of thousands of people. We are the instigators of the suffering and misery. We are responsible for the loss of life and livelihood of so many. A refugee population is a reflection of our inhumanity. It demonstrates our lack of concern for others and our willingness to hurt fellow human beings in our selfish efforts to fulfill our own desires.

So, what creates a refugee population in the first place? How does it happen? What makes conditions deteriorate to the point that significant numbers of human beings are at risk?

By far the single greatest cause is armed conflict. Nothing creates a massive amount of refugees as quickly as war. Although barbaric and indefensible, civilian populations are often targeted for bombings and missile attacks. And even when they are struck unintentionally as in the case of “collateral damage” the death and destruction is just as real and heartbreaking. As armies advance or death reigns down from the sky entire families grabs what few things they can carry and flee in panic, praying that they can get their children to safety before the horror of war overtakes them. Many, of course, are not able to escape. For all of the refugees who make it out of a war zone alive there are countless others who die miserable deaths as they desperately try to save their children. It is the shame of humanity that the innocent are the victims of our unrepentant brutality.

Famine, which is sometimes the result of poor planning and farming practices, can also force concentrated groups of people to leave an area that is rife with hunger in order to feed their families. Often there are long marches to the nearest settlements to obtain food – and many perish on the journey. Persecution is another reason that human beings are forced from their homeland. This can be in the form of either political or religious persecution. In either case specific groups are targeted for abuse, retribution, cruelty, the denial of human rights and even death simply because of their view points or beliefs. But as bad as these causes are there is one reason for people to flee for their lives that is truly sickening and that is genocide.

“Ethnic cleansing”, as it has been referred to down through the decades, is behavior that is so deplorable that the entire world is shocked and horrified when it takes place. To slaughter innocent human beings simply because of who there are, because of where they were born or because of the color of their skin is inhuman. To have to give up everything in your life in order to save your children just because of their ethnicity is intolerable. We cannot allow people to be forced to flee for their lives simply because they are perceived to be different. We are one humanity. Every person on earth is an equal member of the human family. Every individual has the same rights and privileges as anyone else.  Groups frantically seeking asylum from genocide represent the depths of depravity that our species is capable of.

In the desperate attempt to save as many lives as possible, refugees are often herded into huge densely packed camps. Tens of thousands of people are forced to live virtually on top of each other. These camps are breeding grounds for disease and infection. There is little or no sanitation. Food and water are scarce, as is medical treatment. All these things combine to make life unbearable. And what have they done to deserve such treatment? Why have they lost their homes, their possessions and most importantly their loved ones? They are simply trying to survive. They are not at war with anyone. They are not trying to capture land or resources. They are not trying to overthrow a government. They are just trying to feed themselves and their children. And yet they are forced to suffer the most. They are brutalized. They are tortured and killed. They are introduced to extreme poverty.

Refugees are the innocent bystanders to man’s inhumanity to man. They are the blameless victims of mankind’s lust for power and greed. They are forced into a life of despair with no way of escape. Often families become separated as they are forced to evacuate combat zones. Imagine the horror of losing track of your parents or losing contact with your children – not knowing whether they are safe or in danger, whether they are dead or alive. No one should be forced to live in a constant state of terror under such primitive conditions. Unfortunately, as the human toll escalates the international aid that could save thousands of lives is often diverted to those who are creating the misery and suffering. Food and medical care that is meant for innocent children is hoarded by the killers. To purposely allow the helpless to starve to death is a horrific crime and should be punished accordingly.

Until humanity can find more intelligent and civilized ways to settle its differences there will, unfortunately, continue to be refugees. And as long as there are large populations that are displaced the problem of extreme poverty cannot truly be eliminated. The solution to war and the refugee crisis it creates is the same. We have to treat everyone, everywhere equally and with compassion. We have to be tolerant of those who are different than us. We have to respect all people and treat them with dignity. We have to realize that all human life is sacred. We have to understand that everyone has the same basic rights to food, water, shelter and medical care. In short, we have to learn to love one another.  

NO MATTER HOW IT OCCURS, REFUGEES ARE ULTIMATELY THE VICTIMS OF HUMAN INTOLERANCE.

mikecrawley@cox.net

HOW CAN WE GO ABOUT OUR COMFORTABLE LIVES WHILE MILLIONS OF HUMAN BEINGS NEEDLESSLY STARVE TO DEATH EACH YEAR?

Having enough food to eat is a fundamental human right, and because there is more than enough food for everyone, there is absolutely no justification for life threatening hunger to occur.

Each day there are 400 million hungry children in the world. This is in contrast to a recent report that stated that as many as 50% of all Americans are now overweight. In the United States we spend 40 billion dollars a year on diet foods and weight loss programs. Obviously there are very real medical conditions that can cause excessive weight gain; however, a significant amount of obesity is simply the result of over consumption. Human beings in extreme poverty should not be allowed to starve to death while we waste billions of dollars because we eat too much. The fact that we negatively impact our health by eating too many calories while their health is permanently damaged because they can’t consume enough calories is ridiculous.

We have to change the way we think about food. It is not something we can abuse or over indulge in. It is not something we can waste indiscriminately. In America almost 15% of all food purchases are tossed out without ever being opened. Overall, Americans waste about 25% of their food. A typical American family throws away 120 pounds of food per month. In one year, the United States throws away about 95 billion pounds of edible food.

Withholding food from a person will kill them just as surely as putting a gun to their head and pulling the trigger. Therefore, we have a moral obligation to feed everyone with absolutely no exceptions. We sentence people to death row after they have taken someone’s life, but we feed them. People who are terminally ill are fed up until the last possible moment. Individuals who are medically diagnosed as brain dead receive the proper nutrition necessary to sustain life, but for some unimaginable reason we are more than willing to let 6,570,000 children die from starvation and hunger related causes each year without giving it a second thought.

A starving ten-year old boy living in extreme poverty would be far better off if he came to America and killed you or me. He would receive more humane treatment here as a criminal than he receives as an innocent child living in deprivation. This is a sad testament to the world we live in, but it must be acknowledged that it is a world of our own making.

It would never enter our minds to let our pets starve to death. That is why Americans spend 16 billion dollars on pet food each year. When we see a news story on TV about animals that have been starved we our outraged by how anyone could be so cruel, and yet while we are watching the report people are dying at that very moment from starvation around the world. These are human beings that are dying, not animals. These are young children who die before they’ve even had a chance at life. Are their lives not as valuable as the lives of our pets? Are we more sensitive to the mistreatment of animals than to children?

Starving to death is a horrible way to die. You become a living skeleton. You develop open sores that seep. You are prone to a variety of infections due to your weakened immune system, and disease attacks your body. You become so dehydrated that your skin literally cracks open and bleeds. Fungi grow under your esophagus making swallowing excruciating. Overwhelming fatigue sets in and you become too weak to move. Your internal organs shrink as they are deprived of nutrients. There is swelling of the face, torso and extremities caused by the abnormal accumulation of fluid. Excess fluid also gathers in the pleural cavity, making breathing difficult and painful.

After suffering in agony for weeks you finally die, without receiving medical care. Your death was completely unnecessary. There was plenty of food in the world – it just wasn’t available to you. Your life was not considered important enough to save. You were expendable. You were ignored by an uncaring world.

Obviously aid is urgently needed to deliver food immediately into ravaged areas in order to save lives – but that is only a short term fix. A more comprehensive effort has to be undertaken so that local farmers are supported and given the tools they need to increase their levels of production. Economic supports need to be put into place including infrastructure to get locally grown food to those who need it. Water and irrigation is critical to sustaining and increasing crop production. Farmers must have access to modern equipment and instruction on how to get the highest yield from their land. We need to make the long-term financial commitment to help them do these things so they can become self-sufficient. The more food they can grow for themselves the less dependent they will be on a world that does not always respond with compassion.

Hunger can be eradicated in our lifetime, but it will require significant effort on many fronts – and it will demand a corresponding effort from those we seek to help. With our assistance they will be able to increase their ability to sustain themselves with their own crops. That is an effort they will be more than willing to make because they do not want to continue to watch their children die.

Having sufficient food to ensure good health is a basic human right. This is not a philosophical debate. There is no moral ambiguity involved. To deny anyone access to food is a form of murder. To deny it to specific populations is a form of genocide. Food is not a weapon that can be employed with cruelty and disregard. Food is not a product that can be bartered or used as a negotiating tool. Food is exempt from all the other things in life that must be paid for because without it there is no life. When we allow people to starve to death day after day we are making the immoral choice to let it happen. When innocent people die and we do nothing to stop it we are complicit in their deaths.

HUNGER IS A MORAL ISSUE BECAUSE FOOD IS LIFE.

If you would like to help raise awareness about extreme poverty please link http://stopextremepoverty.com/ to your Facebook page or web site.

Thank you.

Compassion is having the ability to understand someone else’s suffering, and having the desire to take action to alleviate that pain. It is the quality that allows you to step outside of yourself and see the true needs of others, including complete strangers on the other side of the planet. Compassion plays a vital role in the effort to make the world a better place because it offers hope to those who are ravaged by circumstances beyond their control. Unfortunately, there is no greater need for compassion than when it comes to the fight to eradicate extreme poverty. Each year more people die from poverty than from cancer, and it annually claims more victims than war. It destroys families, creating orphans at a horrific rate. It allows disease to run rampant and it spreads hunger and illness. There is no reason for life threatening poverty to exist in this day and age because we not only have the tools to stop it but to also prevent it from occurring in the future. The only reason it continues to thrive is because of a lack of human compassion.  

For those trapped in extreme poverty, compassion is a beautiful gift that can save their lives and those of their children. It is the willingness of people to help individuals they will never meet. It is the willingness to make sacrifices on the behalf of others. It is the willingness to face challenges with courage and conviction in order to improve the quality of life for a billion human beings. If you are filled with compassion for those who are struggling to survive on a dollar a day you cannot be cynical or selfish. Compassion replaces feelings of intolerance and hate with love and understanding. However, being compassionate is more than just being sympathetic. It also supplies the drive and will power to remove the suffering. Compassion demands immediate and effective effort to improve the lives of those who are the victims of injustice.  

There are many deplorable aspects to extreme poverty, but one of the worst is the heartbreaking lack of compassion that is demonstrated by citizens of the West for the innocent children in poverty who die at the heartbreaking rate of 25,000 a day. It is inexcusable that we turn away and go about our comfortable lives without a care in the world while more than 9 million children needlessly die each year. What causes this type of behavior on our part? Is it the fact that we are so preoccupied with our own lives and problems that we lose our perspective on the world at large or do we simply choose to ignore our responsibilities to make this a life filled with love and peace for everyone? Is it that we have difficulty caring about those who are out of sight and that we don’t actually interact with? Is it that we don’t feel compassion for those who seem different from us because of their ethnicity or their beliefs? Whatever the excuse, our lack of compassion has severe repercussions on the lives of the millions of human beings who are desperate for our concern and our commitment. They need us to care so they can survive.  

Compassion not only recognizes the need for aid and comfort when something is wrong, it compels us to get involved. We can’t help but reach out to those who are facing life and death situations when we are filled with compassion. It makes us sensitive to what other people are going through. It makes us care at such a profound level that we are filled with the overwhelming desire to save the lives of the innocent. Compassion makes us accept responsibility that we never thought we could handle. It makes us better people than we ever dreamed we could be – and it is a fact that we cannot eliminate extreme poverty without it. We can throw money and programs at the problem but that will not solve it. We can enlist the aid of governments and organizations worldwide but that will not solve it. We can write about it and raise awareness about it and have celebrities put their weight behind the cause but that will not solve it. The only permanent solution is compassion. If we love one another, if we are filled with concern for those who are bravely fighting to stay alive against incredible odds, then the money, support and programs will fall into place.  

Unfortunately, our lack of compassion for those who are dying demonstrates a mob mentality of indifference and self-centeredness. It shows our preoccupation with trivial, insignificant issues that eat up the limited number of days in our lives. In later years you do not want to look back and see that you wasted precious time on meaningless pursuits that now have no value. You do not want to realize that you abused your time and accomplished nothing of importance in your life. Please do not let that happen. Do not spend your time searching for happiness by engaging in activities that, in the end, are not fulfilling. You can enjoy a life filled with compassion that will lead you in a totally different direction. You can experience a deep sense of joy in your efforts to help save lives. You can begin to understand how rewarding life can be when you sincerely make the effort to bring hope to those who are struggling in desperation.  

It is not too late to change your priorities so that you can begin to affect the world in a positive way. You only need to embrace the challenge of living a compassionate life. Practice thinking of others first. Put their needs ahead of your own. Try to realize that your problems are insignificant compared to the death and suffering faced by those in extreme poverty. Feel good about yourself for attempting to be part of the solution. Get lost in a cause that is bigger than your own personal interests. Start right now to live your life to the fullest with an increasing awareness of the courageous struggle waged each day by a billion fellow human beings.  

The entire planet is not made up of shopping malls and golf courses. Too much of the real world is filled with unnecessary hunger, treatable illnesses and preventable disease. If you will open your eyes and see the reality of life you will be filled with compassion as you begin to understand the suffering experienced by hundreds of millions of people through no fault of their own. As you learn the heart wrenching facts about extreme poverty you will be moved to take action. You will begin to actively try to save lives as you give your own life new meaning…And in the future when you reflect back on the decisions you’ve made you will not see a life burdened with regret. You will be able to say that you cared and that you made the courageous attempt to live a life filled with compassion.  

COMPASSION, FREELY GIVEN, IS THE GREATEST GIFT ONE HUMAN BEING CAN SHARE WITH ANOTHER.

mikecrawley@cox.net

The human race loves to label itself, particularly those that seem different from us. We often label based on physical appearance. Someone is tall or short, old or young, thin or overweight, pretty or homely and it goes on and on. We also like to label by personality. Someone is happy or grumpy, positive or negative, shy or outgoing. We particularly enjoy labeling people by their beliefs or viewpoints. There are liberals, conservatives and independents. There are Protestants and Catholics. There are Christians, Jews and atheists. There are gays, straights and bisexuals. And finally we habitually label people by there status in life. They are upper class, middle class or lower class. They live in a gated community or in a bad part of town. They are well off or they are homeless. In every case we make a supreme effort to force everyone we come in contact with into a narrow definition that we understand so we can either accept or reject them based on nothing more than our on prejudices and pre-conceived notions.

However, the main reason we like to label people is so that we can make sure they are just like us. If they are white, Christian, conservative and heterosexual we can include them in our group. But if they are gay, liberal, atheists, socialists or people of color we must be on guard and keep them at a distance. And more importantly, if they do not deserve to be in our group than that automatically makes them inferior to us. By labeling we pick and choose who is worthy of our time and attention and who we wish to avoid. Labeling leads to stereotyping, intolerance and bigotry, and it is a heartbreaking fact that labels can kill. This is especially true in extreme poverty. To be labeled as “poor” immediately sets a bias and a framework of beliefs that turns that person into a victim. And while it is true that individuals who are struggling in poverty do need our assistance, they do not want our pity. They only desire the opportunity to be equals with the same chance at life that we enjoy. They want the same things for their children that we demand. They are certainly not interested in being considered victims. They simply want to be equal human beings that deserve our respect and compassion.

Unfortunately, a portion of the world believes that anyone who is trapped in a lower economic class is beneath them. They look down on them and consider their lives to be less valuable. They do not want to associate with such people or have any contact with them at all. Those individuals are shunted away and forced to live in squalor in slums that are out of sight of those who enjoy lives of privilege. We label them as being “undesirable” and “unworthy” of us. To put limitations on someone else’s life because of a label you assign to them is clearly wrong. Who are we to say that entire groups should be treated unfairly or left out in life just because we say they are “poor”, or “black” or “gay” or “non-Christian”?

We do not have the right to add to someone’s misery with our own narrow mindedness. We should not superimpose our limited way of thinking on others. It is morally wrong that 18,000 children die from hunger issues each day because we don’t like the color of their skin, or the religious faith of their parents or the military viewpoint of their nation. When a child starves to death because we have devalued their life with a senseless label, just so that we can justify our indifference and our selfishness, it is an atrocity. We cannot use labels to pick and choose who lives or dies. We do not have that authority.

We are all part of the same human family. We transcend labels. We can’t allow them to define us or hold us back. But for those in extreme poverty if is incredibly difficult to fight the characterizations that prompt the feelings of bigotry and hatred. When your human rights have been stripped away, along with your dignity, it is almost impossible to rise up against the false labels that continue to harm you and your children. That is why we have to help them overcome the limitations imposed on them from the outside world. We have to fight back against the inaccuracies and falsehoods that many still believe about those in poverty. We have to speak up for those who simply want to be acknowledged as our equals, which is exactly what they are.

None of us wants to be unfairly identified in a way that prohibits us, and none of us wants our children to be labeled in a negative way before they’ve even had a chance in life – and yet that is what continually happens to those in extreme poverty. Instead of focusing exclusively on their ethnicity or their religious beliefs or their political viewpoints we must accept them as complete human beings just as we expect the same for ourselves. Anything less is morally wrong.  Labels make us think of them as less than full partners in the human race.

In extreme poverty we often use classifications to focus on and target specific groups who need our help. This is a useful tool to identify needs within certain areas, but it is often taken too far. Just as the physician sometimes refers to her patient by his ailment instead of his name we often refer to human beings in poverty as the HIV population or homeless refugees or the illiterate. All of these designations can obscure the fact that we are talking about real flesh and blood human beings. Just as statistics have a way of numbing us to the actual suffering of people, labeling removes the individual misery from our consciousness and replaces it with a generic type of wording that does not properly convey the horror that is occurring in these lives. That is why we can no longer hide behind labels.

We must see the pain that a father in Ethiopia feels as he shovels dirt into the face of his dead child. We must feel the agony of the mother in India who tightly clutches her little girl to her breast as her daughter dies from cholera. We must realize the horror of a young woman in Sierra Leone who struggles alone in agony before dying during a breech birth. We must see each individual’s courageous daily struggle against insurmountable odds, and we must refuse to make their lives even more difficult with labels born of ignorance and laziness. We can learn to understand others without classifying them. We can accept them as equal members of the human family. We can give them the respect they deserve, and we can ensure that they are allowed to enjoy the same human rights that we expect. In doing so we will not only improve their lives we will also become better human beings ourselves, and that in itself will help change the world.

REMOVING LABELS FROM OUR LANGUAGE CAN OPEN OUR EYES TO THE POTENTIAL OF EVERY HUMAN BEING.

For some people the idea of sacrifice is a completely alien concept. They spend their entire lives expecting others to make sacrifices on their behalf, but it never even occurs to them to return the favor. They quickly fall into the habit of constantly taking without ever giving back. In their minds they are the center of the universe and they expect everyone else to treat them that way. For these individuals the thought of actually slowing down on the interstate to allow someone else to merge into traffic is as unrealistic as the idea of donating a small amount of money each month to a relief agency that could use those funds to save the lives of hungry children. In both cases these people tend to ignore the needs of others and refuse to make even the smallest of sacrifices that would benefit someone else. 

The notion of “sacrifice” is so unpopular that here in the United States it is considered political suicide for a candidate running for office to even utter the word. We expect our leaders to have answers to every problem our nation faces, but these solutions cannot require middle class Americans to make even the slightest of sacrifices let alone significant changes in their lifestyles. We are more than willing to have other segments of our society disproportionately bear the brunt of cutbacks, layoffs and higher taxes. We don’t mind if the poor get poorer as long we are left alone. Politicians know that sacrifices are an absolute necessity, but they lack the courage to tell the truth to people who do not want to hear it. Both the office holders and the constituents dance around the obvious, ignoring reality and preferring instead to hope against hope that someone else will do the dirty work that they are afraid to address.

By its very nature sacrifice can be difficult. It can sometimes be painful and even life altering, but for humanity to survive and thrive it is critical that it be a part of our lives. Because of its importance, we admire those whose jobs require sacrifice for our benefit. Police officers, firefighters and those in the military are each willing to sacrifice their lives so that we can live safely and in peace. Individuals bravely donate organs so that complete strangers will have the opportunity to regain their health. And every day around the world women courageously give birth, risking their own lives in order to bring their babies into the world, often under dangerous circumstances. Every one of us benefits in some way because of the sacrifices of others. The reason you are able to read this is because a series of human beings have made sacrifices for you throughout your life. 

However, the majority of us never think about giving back. We are so consumed with our own lives that we never stop to consider those who desperately need our help. This does not occur because we are immoral, or selfish or narrow-minded - it happens because we are so caught up in our own issues and challenges that we fail to realize that, for the most part, what we think of as problems are insignificant compared to what 1 out of every 6 human beings on earth face every day. To the one billion people trapped in extreme poverty our lives appear to be perfect. Middle class Americans do not have to dig graves for their children because they died excruciating deaths from hunger. None of us witness a young boy getting his legs blown off by a landmine. We do not live with the fear of malaria each time our child is bitten by a mosquito. Death does not rain down from the sky as a super power unleashes missile attacks that leave bodies twisted and charred on the streets as “collateral damage”. 

But for hundreds of millions of human beings this is what they experience every day of their lives…When one small child dies from hunger it occurs because every other person on earth allowed it to happen. All six billion of us failed to do what was necessary to feed that one child. In other words, none of us was willing to make the simple sacrifices that would have saved that child’s life. The World Food Programme can feed a child a life saving meal for 25 cents. To feed that child for one year cost $91.25. But even this ridiculously small sacrifice seems to be too much to ask of us, because each year 6,570,000 children die from hunger and related causes. To feed all of these children for one year would cost $599,512,500. So for less than 600 million dollars we could save the lives of more than 6 million children each year.

But what kind of sacrifice would that require of our nation?…How about one aircraft carrier? Each Nimitz-class carrier cost 4.5 billion dollars to produce. Please stop and consider this example for a moment. Would your quality of life, your personal freedom or the safety of your family be impacted in any way if the United States had just one less aircraft carrier? Of course not. Our entire military philosophy is based on “overkill”. There would be no impact to America whatsoever if we reduced our defense spending, which is currently at more than 700 billion per year, by less than one percent. But the impact of that tiny sacrifice would be incredible because the lives of more than 6 million innocent children could be spared…and there would be almost 4 billion dollars left over. 

Whether or not we are willing to make the sacrifice of cutting our defense budget by a fraction in order to save millions of lives is a clear reflection of our character as a nation. Unfortunately, until now we have been unwilling to trade one ship for 6 million lives. And of course the irony is that the very thing we insist we must have, is designed expressly to take human life as effectively and efficiently as possible. We are making the financial decision as a nation to take life rather than to save life. The idea of sacrificing one aircraft carrier to save millions of children doesn’t carry weight with us. We would rather have the capability to attack the countries where these children live than to feed them. It is a choice we consistently make, and God help any politician who even mentions the idea of cutting defense spending. Our ability and right to kill supersedes the right of a five-year old not to starve to death in the dirt. 

Because it can save lives, sacrifice is one of the most noble characteristics possessed by humanity. It is compassion put into action. It is a willingness to use our intellect instead of our base emotions. It is the opportunity for us to be great and to achieve the true potential of our species. Those of us who are fortunate enough to enjoy lives of comfort and abundance need to remember those who live in far different circumstances. If we flip the military example around we can see the tradeoff more clearly. The parents of more than six million children make the ultimate sacrifice each year so that our country can have one more aircraft carrier. If you think that is a fair trade than you are to be pitied. You have lost your sense of humanity and you are choosing to ignore the reality of the world around you. But if you are able to see the injustice of such inequity it is time to take a stand. It is time for individuals as well as governments to act responsibly. It is time to be brave and to act courageously on behalf of the innocent who have no representation. 

IT IS TIME TO SACRIFICE JUST A LITTLE SO THAT OTHERS DO NOT HAVE TO SACRIFICE EVERYTHING.

mikecrawley@cox.net

It is 11:45 on a Saturday night and you are sound asleep when the phone rings. You fumble around for the receiver, pick it up and mumble “hello”. The man’s voice on the line is very calm, but the words he says changes your life forever. A quick burst of adrenalin surges through your body as he states in an even voice that your 17-year-old daughter has been killed in a car accident. You are stunned and you feel like you can’t breath. You have gone from being groggy to more alert than you have ever been in your life. You begin to argue that it can’t be true, but he is certain. Her identification matches this address and phone number. The emotion of absolute heartbreak now comes flooding over you and you can barely speak. The state trooper is patient. He has, unfortunately, made this call many times. He explains that your daughter and her girlfriend were struck head on by a drunk driver. They were both dead before help could arrive. There is more explanation given and some phone numbers you are to call but it is just a blur. You can no longer focus on what is being said. Finally after expressing his deepest condolences the officer hangs up.   

As you begin to sob you simply cannot believe the horror is true. Only 4 or 5 hours ago you kissed her goodbye. You were going to spend the day together tomorrow. She was so beautiful and kind and intelligent. She had been making plans for her future and she wanted to be a force for change in the world. Everyone loved her and she had countless friends. She had her whole life ahead of her. For Christ’s sake she was only 17 years old. As the realization slowly sets in that this is not a nightmare but actual reality, you begin to give up. You collapse into absolutely paralyzing grief. A million questions fill your mind. How could this have happened? Who is responsible? Why did it have to be your daughter? What had your family done to deserve this?  

Months later, the days following the phone call will be difficult to remember. You know you managed to function somehow and to make the decisions that were necessary, but it is not clear how you were able to keep going through the overwhelming pain. You spent hours breaking the news to family members. You went to the mortuary and picked out her casket. You endured the funeral itself and then finally you said goodbye for the last time at the graveside. You can remember bending down and gently kissing her coffin and knowing with certainty that this was the end. She was gone forever and you would never see her again. From that moment on you were not the same person. No matter how long you live there will always be a part of you missing. You know that her birthday and holidays will bring fresh pain. You will watch her friends go on to college, get married and start families, and although happy for them, you will not be able to help feeling a certain amount of envy for all the things you and your daughter will miss. Until your final breath you will never understand why her life had to be taken.  

What must be realized is that with needless death there is responsibility. In this particular case there were many individuals who played a role in allowing this tragedy to occur. First and foremost was the person who tried to drive while under the influence of alcohol. That decision was not only stupid but also incredibly selfish because he not only put his life at risk but the lives of countless other innocent people. Also bearing responsibility are the friends he was with who did not prevent him from driving. They could have arranged for some other type of transportation, but they let him get behind the wheel knowing full well he was impaired. They did not want to offend him. Also at fault was the bartender that continued to serve him even after it was apparent he had consumed too many drinks. His desire for profit superseded any concern for the public’s safety. All of these individuals could have prevented needless death by taking action, but they refused. None of them had the courage or the conviction to step in and take responsibility for a situation that was out of control. Consequently two innocent young women were killed through no fault of their own. Their families were devastated and dozens of lives were adversely changed forever. 

This example demonstrates how needless death can occur in our lives. But for those in extreme poverty if happens in other ways. For instance, a child chronically suffers from malnutrition and eventually hunger overwhelms her immune system. She fights off illness after illness but each one leaves her weaker. Finally the hunger ravages her body to the point where she cannot recover and she dies…So, who or what is responsible for this little girl’s death? Is it drought? Is it famine? Is it spiraling food prices? Is it just an act of God – or is it you and I? You may wonder how you could possibly have anything to do with the death of a little girl from hunger when she is thousands of miles away. After all, you would never knowingly harm an innocent child. You love children. However, because those of us who live in comfort in the West have the ability to feed those who are hungry, we have a responsibility to take action…but we choose not to. Why?  

We are all part of the same human family. We are all responsible for each other. Every life is important and each life has equal value. When a needless death occurs anywhere in the world there is responsibility shared by those of us who could have prevented it. The fact that you don’t want that kind of responsibility on your shoulders doesn’t matter. You carry the burden whether you want it or not. Just like the individuals who had the knowledge that a man was going to drive under the influence you know that a child is going to die from hunger. Just as they had a responsibility to take his car keys to prevent a tragedy you are under the same obligation to feed a child. In both cases a death can be prevented by another person if they are only willing to get involved instead of just turning away. Each day you have multiple opportunities to save human life. It is your responsibility to do what you can to prevent death and suffering among those who are depending on you for help. To do otherwise makes each of us an accomplice to tragedy.  

ANYTIME AN INNOCENT PERSON DIES BECAUSE OF THE NEGLECT OF SOMEONE ELSE, IT IS MORALLY WRONG.

WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR OTHERS.

mikecrawley@cox.net

25,000 CHILDREN DIE EACH DAY FROM EXTREME POVERTY…THEY DON’T HAVE TO.

In developing countries, children die out of our sight. We are vaguely aware that it is happening, but it is not something we have to personally deal with. The world conveniently looks away because the media refuses to cover the story. But what if 25,000 children needlessly died everyday of the year in the western world? Would we ignore it? Would we go about our business and pretend that it wasn’t occurring? Would we consistently refuse to lift one finger to save those innocent lives?

Over the course of a year 9,125,000 children die from the effects of extreme poverty. If that many children were dying in the West it would be the biggest news story imaginable. Every politician’s job would be in danger if they could not immediately begin to bring the death rate down. Corporations would be under tremendous pressure to commit at least a fraction of their enormous profits to help society battle the atrocity. The medical community would be forced to deliver care whether families with dying children could afford to pay or not. In short, it would cause us to act the way we should.

Children in extreme poverty die from starvation and hunger related causes. They die from treatable illnesses. They die from preventable diseases. They die from our neglect. The grim truth is that the vast majority of these deaths do not have to occur. With a concentrated effort on our part we could save countless lives. We could stop the unnecessary suffering that afflicts so many. We could interrupt the cycle of despair that mothers and fathers are forced to endure as they bury their small children.

Sadly, each year 6,700,000 people of all ages die from cancer around the world. That is 18,355 people each day. That compares to 18,000 children each day who die just from hunger issues. Cancer is considered the plague of our lifetime and yet we kill more people, including helpless children, just by ignoring them. Each year 10,950,000 human beings die from extreme poverty. That is 4,250,000 more than die from cancer. A child’s death is horrific whether it is from cancer or hunger, but only one gets the public’s attention and therefore the funding. Unfortunately, at this time pediatric cancer cannot be totally prevented – starvation can.

Children are vulnerable and dependent. We have an obligation to take care of them no matter what their economic status or where they might live. National boundaries should not be enforced when children are dying. Ethnicity is meaningless, religious differences are pointless, political divisions must be ignored. Saving the life of a child takes priority over every other consideration. Nothing should stop the free flow of aid into areas where children are at risk.

We each have to look within ourselves and decide how we want the world to be. Are we willing to let more than nine million children die each year because we are too lazy, self-centered or greedy to stop it? We have the power to make the world into a much more compassionate and tolerant place, but it requires action – not just “hoping and wishing”. Taking action means making a commitment to hard work and being willing to make sacrifices. It means being relentless in our efforts to save the lives of children everywhere. It means getting out of our comfort zone of always putting ourselves first. It means not being afraid to take a stand even if you are alone in your convictions. It means being brave.

In the Western world we have built a society based on consumption and status. It thrives on material wealth and power. It glorifies the individual above all others. It is perfectly designed to let children in extreme poverty die without forcing us to feel regret or remorse. We insulate ourselves from the problems faced by the poorest one billion people on earth. Even though we are parents, we do not feel compelled to stand with the mothers and fathers in poverty who are watching helplessly as their children die at a heartbreaking rate from a lack of food, clean water and basic medical care – all of which we could help provide. Instead we obsess over our kids not getting enough playing time on the soccer team or the fact that ballet class conflicts with piano lessons. We worry that they will only get into a state college instead of a private university. We spoil them with material possessions instead of teaching them the value of giving to others…And all the while children die needlessly minute by minute – day by day and year by year.

Today 25,000 graves will be dug for children who have died as a result of our neglect. Each one of us has played our part in filling those graves. Each shovel full of dirt thrown into the face of a dead child is a pathetic reflection on our priorities in life. We have chosen and continue to choose to let these children die so that we may live the way we want, even though it is morally reprehensible.

HOW MANY MORE GRAVES WILL WE HELP DIG BEFORE WE COME TO OUR SENSES?

mikecrawley@cox.net

The union of two human beings that produces a third is the most important bond that can be formed by humanity, and the resulting birth is an exalted and beloved moment in every society around the world. There is something about the creation of new life that moves people in such a profound way that it is the single most important factor in most cultures. The joy that is experienced by new parents, grandparents, family and friends is pure and genuine. Every one of them desires an uneventful pregnancy, an easy delivery and a healthy baby. It is one of the life changing events that all human kind has in common.

For those who are fortunate enough to live in countries where the standard of living permits pre-natal care, proper nutrition and the latest medical advances, pregnancy and delivery are much safer and even routine. Both mother and infant have the odds on their side. In the Western world we experience a lifetime maternal mortality rate of 1 in 2,800. Should something begin to go wrong during the pregnancy immediate action can be taken to correct the situation and if the delivery becomes difficult there are all types of scenarios that can be employed to ensure the survival of both mother and child.

Because of the high success rate of giving birth in developed nations, when a couple announces to the world the wonderful news that they are starting a family it is greeted with excitement, anticipation and joy. The news spreads quickly and the bets begin to be made on whether it will be a boy or a girl. Grandmothers start making baby blankets and buying clothes that won’t be worn for a least a year but they can’t help themselves. Their elation at the prospect of their children producing another generation to love and to cherish compels them to do things that demonstrate the intense happiness that comes with a simple birth announcement.

Unfortunately, this wonderful, heartwarming experience is not shared by everyone. For those in extreme poverty pregnancy and delivery is a time of nerve racking fear and danger. Lack of proper food, clean water and medical attention combine to create life threatening situations for both mother and child. Because of the poor nutrition, unsanitary conditions, illness and disease that are experienced by the expectant mother, the baby can suffer irreparable harm before it is even born. But the actual delivery itself can be terrifying and deadly. In some areas of extreme poverty a woman has a 1 in 16 lifetime risk of dying during childbirth. To say that this is not acceptable in the modern world is the grossest of understatements. These are flesh and blood human beings who are fighting for their lives as well as the lives of their newborns, and all too often they are losing that struggle.

What should be the most beautiful moment of their lives is instead filled with heartbreak and agony. When a mother dies giving birth to her child it is the ultimate sacrifice a human being can make. There is no greater love. For a baby to die during delivery or shortly after birth is the greatest pain that can be experienced. But when you add in the fact that hundreds of thousands of these deaths do not have to occur these tragedies take on an extra dimension of frustration and pain. When a death can be prevented and it isn’t, it is an atrocity and a reflection on the entire world. It sharply points out our preoccupation with our own lives at the expense of everyone else.

The list of horrors that accompany childbirth in poverty is endless. Mothers can suffer miscarriages due to the lack of proper medical care. Babies can be born with physical and intellectual challenges because of poor of nutrition and complications during pregnancy. A mother can pass HIV/AIDS to her infant without even knowing she is infected. The actual delivery itself can be filled with danger which is compounded significantly if there is no midwife or medical staff present. Should there be a problem the lack of facilities to care for the newborn makes dangerous situations even worse. All these factors and more combine to make the successful birth of a baby infinitely more challenging when you are poor.

To be trapped in extreme poverty means that even the most wonderful of moments such as childbirth is denied to you. Even that blessed event is tarnished by terror, injury and death. It is a sad reflection on humanity that at the greatest moment of vulnerability in a human life we turn away and let infants and mothers die at a startling rate. How can we do this so easily when we place such importance on this experience in our own lives? It is impossible to understand why we think the life of a baby in the West is worth more than the life of baby in a developing country. Our behavior is inexcusable and cannot be tolerated any longer. We must protect all new life as well as the lives of the courageous women who risk their own health to deliver their babies.

Each infant that is born needs the entire world to care. Either we believe that every life is precious or we believe that not all lives are worth saving. It is an all or nothing proposition. We can’t pick and choose which babies get to live and which we are willing to let die. We don’t have the right to say that tens of thousands of dollars will be spent to save the life of an infant in America while we willingly let a newborn in Africa die without the most basic things needed for survival. Every infant’s life is of equal value. There should be no picking and choosing. Every mother and child deserves the same opportunity to safely survive the birthing process, and every newborn should be loved and nurtured. There can be no exceptions when it comes to respecting life.

If you are fortunate enough to love someone or know someone who is having a baby than you should share in their joy and excitement over the new addition to their family. But we should not forget that for millions of people the experience of pregnancy and birth is far different from ours. We must make every effort to ensure the safety of both mother and child no matter what part of the world they may live in. It is our duty to support and prepare women for childbirth, and it is crucial that we supply trained medical personnel so that these brave women do not have to face their delivery alone, without medication and without proper care.

Thankfully, I am one of those fortunate enough to love someone who has had a healthy baby!

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER KRISTY AND HER WONDERFUL HUSBAND CHRIS ON THE BIRTH OF THEIR SON NATHANIEL…MAY HE GROW UP TO KNOW A WORLD WITHOUT POVERTY.

mikecrawley@cox.net

Peace is, unfortunately, something we seem to take for granted. It is a precious and important ingredient for a long healthy life and yet we do not fully appreciate its significance. We blindly go through our lives assuming that everyone is as fortunate as we are, but the truth is that millions of innocent people, particularly children, have never had the opportunity to live in peace. For too many, violence is all they’ve ever known. The relentless heartbreak surrounding war is why peace is so critically important. Not only does it save the lives of soldiers and the innocent civilians who are trapped between the warring factions, it also provides the stability necessary for countries to heal their economies and to grow stronger so that their citizens are lifted out of the mire of hunger and disease and can have a future free of fear and destruction. Peace is a primary component in the solution to extreme poverty because without it there is no hope of escaping the death and misery that results from constant fighting. 

Peace is the natural state of the world. We have to learn to hate and we have to be taught who to hate. Going to war should be a last resort and even then it should be employed only as a means of self-defense. To kill over territory or for power is an aberration of what it means to be human. Every sensible person on earth wants to live without violence. No one in their right mind wants to expose their children to the horrors of war. No one wants to lose their homes and all their possessions. No one wants to risk injury and death because two nations, regions or leaders cannot reach a suitable compromise that will allow innocent people to live their lives free from the shadow of armed conflict. 

Why does peace seem so elusive in poverty? Why is it so difficult to control aggression within the context of low economic output and when there is little hope for prosperity? If there is nothing left to take why are some still driven to grab all they can? Part of the answer lies in our inability to accept others. Nations, regions, ethnic groups, tribes and clans all struggle with the concept of equality and whether human rights should be applied evenly to everyone. Intolerance and bigotry still run rampant in parts of the world creating stumbling blocks to achieving peace. When one society sees another as less than equal they feel no reluctance in oppressing them, subjugating them and even eliminating them. The horror of genocide has been a tragic part of our legacy down through the ages.

It is interesting how, after two warring parties have killed and maimed their opposing populations, they eventually come to terms and accept each other’s right to exist. Problems are solved and often the two entities end up being close trading partners and totally accepting of each other’s right to prosper and live in peace. But why does this only happen after millions have suffered? Why do innocent children have to be shot and blown to pieces for this spirit of brotherhood to suddenly blossom into understanding and acceptance? Why do we have to constantly rebuild lives and economies because the warring factions were convinced that their supposed enemies had to be destroyed at all costs?  Why do lives have to be decimated before we are able to see that our differences, no matter how profound, can be worked out in a peaceful way without destroying entire nations? Why can we not have peace right now? 

The answer, of course, is that we can. We don’t have to wait. Peace is not an abstract idea that comes and goes on a whim. Peace is the result of hard work. It’s the result of patience and a willingness to listen and to compromise. It’s the result of a desire to not have to bury any more innocent children. It’s the realization that we are intelligent enough, clever enough and resourceful enough to not have to resort to killing every time we have sincere disagreements. We underestimate ourselves when we believe that violence is the only solution. We are selling ourselves short to think that we are incapable of anything other than brute force when it comes to solving the complex problems faced by humanity. We are cheating ourselves when we do not make the best use of our intellect to resolve differences instead of endlessly relying on weapons to dominate those that we refuse to try to understand.

We are a species that has the ability to be creative, and we use that ability everyday of our lives. So why don’t we apply that gift to the creation of better understanding and acceptance among all of us who share this small planet? It is to everyone’s advantage not to kill innocent children on either side of a conflict because those children are the future. They are the hope of tomorrow. To needlessly slaughter them is not only morally reprehensible it is an act of total ignorance and irrationality. How can we think that the future will be any better when we create so much hate from our actions today? Extreme poverty will continue to flourish as long as the human race insists on solving its problems with bloodshed. 

Nothing creates poverty faster or on a deeper level than war. It is an unstoppable progression once conflict breaks out. The fighting starts and people’s lives begin to be torn apart. Local economies collapse. Any services that were present before the fighting, quickly disappear and life becomes so challenging that survival cannot be ensured. It is heartbreak and misery on a massive scale…but the solution is ever present. Peace is always possible and always within reach. It is a goal that can be attained at any moment chosen by those embroiled in the conflict. The fighting does not have to be played out until one side annihilates the other. The brutality and cruelty can be replaced with tolerance and respect when intelligence is applied as opposed to just following our emotions.

In areas of extreme poverty, peace must be the goal at all times because without it the opportunity to help others learn to help themselves is not a realistic possibility. You cannot improve farming techniques if your fields are filled with landmines. You cannot educate your children if your son is forced into the militia to kill other young boys or your daughter is abducted by human traffickers and forced into prostitution. You cannot hope to vaccinate millions of infants if the endless fighting includes killing medical personnel who are simply trying to save as many lives as they can. Peace has to be the end result of all our efforts to combat desperation and hopelessness. Until the world accepts and understands the invaluable significance of this condition we cannot make areas of poverty safe for the one billion men, women and children who live at the edge of disaster every day of their lives…We must be the ones who make peace the priority of the human race. We must be the ones who value life over death no matter what else might be at stake. We must be the ones who are willing to stand up for the right of all people everywhere to live without the threat of armed conflict tearing their lives apart. We must be the ones who demonstrate that peace is a state of mind that allows a defenseless child the opportunity to live without the fear of death haunting their every waking moment. 

PEACE IS SIMPLY THE RESULT OF UNDERSTANDING. 

mikecrawley@cox.net

During that same length of time the average person will consume at least 132,000 calories, and in many cases they’ll take in a lot more than that. Some of us will put on weight during this time. We’ll go on diets and join weight loss programs. We’ll watch reality shows about individuals trying to lose hundreds of pounds. We will go to the doctor because our backs and knees hurt from carrying around so much extra weight. We will celebrate with food. We will share it. We will eat it in the middle of the night. We will eat in our cars, at work and in front of the TV. We will snack constantly between meals and then at dinner we’ll go for seconds and thirds. We’ll hit the all-you-can-eat buffets and literally do just that. We’ll consume thousands of empty calories devoid of any nutritional value whatsoever while we avoid the healthy food at all costs. We will consume sodium and sugar in ungodly amounts, to the point where we create a whole host of medical problems for ourselves…but we’ll keep eating. It’s what we do. 

We happily attack the flesh of any animal we can get on our plates, cholesterol be damned. We don’t care if it runs, walks, crawls, swims, flies or wiggles if we can slaughter it we’ll eat it. We teach our children the fine distinction of which animals exist only to fill our stomachs and which ones are chosen as beloved members of our families. It is an important survival tip for the animal kingdom to try to be fuzzy and cute. An animal is are far less likely to be eaten by a carnivorous human being if they can appeal to our desire to pet them instead of eat them. It also helps if we feel like we can communicate with an animal and train them. That develops a bond that is rarely broken by one species eating the other. However, if you are a creature that has been deemed menu worthy we will confine you, fatten you and kill you at what we feel is the appropriate time. Your longevity is at our discretion. Your carcass will be sliced, diced, frozen and preserved until a convenient time to be served piping hot to human beings.

Food is more than just a requirement for survival, it is intricately woven into our culture. We not only have the obvious physical need for calories we also have intense mental and emotional attachments to what we eat. There is an evolutionary component to our primal desire to consume as much as possible whenever we can, in order to fend off starvation, but like many things in the Western world we have taken this biological function to an extreme. Our society bombards us with food advertising aimed at the very young in the hope that they will become hooked on their sugary products at the earliest age possible. We are taught from the beginning of our lives that food equals comfort. We believe that food is the solution to almost every problem we have. When we feel depressed – we eat. If we feel lonely – we eat. If we feel unhappy – we eat. If we can’t fit into our jeans any more – we eat. No matter how we are feeling at the moment we reach for the nearest junk food in the hopes that it will soothe our psyche for at least a short time. 

In public we are just as apt to abuse food. We sit in a nice restaurant and order from a huge menu that offers us so many choices it can take a full ten minutes to decide which items we want to stuff ourselves with. The perfect climate controlled atmosphere offers a rich dining ambience that makes our meal more enjoyable. Augmented by soft background music and a doting waiter who caters to our every need, we relax and thoroughly enjoy ourselves, The food is savory and rich in both texture and taste. The wine is robust and fills us with a warm glow that leads to a feeling of contentment and peace. From the appetizer through the dessert the entire meal is filled with sensory pleasures that our brains process as pure fulfillment. The final sips of gourmet coffee signals the end of another feast that will require hours of work at the gym to remove from our hips and waistlines. However, at such a blissful moment as this we are not thinking about hypertension, diabetes or coronary disease – nor are we concerned about the check we’re about to receive. With only a piece of plastic we can leave more money for just the tip than one billion human beings each make in two weeks. 

Unfortunately, this type of dining experience is in sharp contrast to what tens of thousands of mothers and fathers go through each day in extreme poverty as they dig graves for their small children who have tragically died from hunger. They do not feel a warm glow or contentment as they shovel dirt into the face of their little boy or girl. The ambience they experience is drought, armed conflict and refugee camps. They do not eat until they can’t take another breath. They do not spend 25% of what they’ll be able to earn in a year on just one meal. They do not have the luxury of dining in air conditioning without a swarm of flies. They often don’t even have something as simple as clean water to drink. Meals, if they have them, are plates or cups of porridge fortified with vitamins and nutrients designed to keep them alive not to satisfy a discriminating palate. There is no expensive wine or gourmet coffee. There are no rich desserts. There is just the specter of children dying or being left physically and intellectually challenged by severe malnutrition. 

So, the answer to the question; “DO WE CARE ABOUT HUNGER?” is obviously – not so much. We realize it exists, someplace far away and out of sight – to people we don’t understand or feel connected to – but in no way do we feel compelled to lift a finger to help them. The fact that more than six million children die each year around the world simply because they do not receive enough nutrition to fight off disease and illness does not seem to bother us in the least. The sad irony of our own poor health as a result of too much food versus their health problems and premature death due to a lack of food is completely lost on us. When was the last time you thought of a starving child as you shoveled in huge mouthfuls of stringy pizza? How often do you look at your reflection in the mirror and see the sagging gut, the unsightly bulges and the ripples of cellulite on the body of someone who has lost all control over their will power at meal time? Have you ever considered passing up a greasy, fat laden, meat based meal and writing a check instead to a humanitarian relief organization that could use that money to provide meals to 100 hungry children? 

In reality we should all care about hunger. We all know that it is immoral for a child to die from malnutrition when there is plenty of food available to feed everyone. We also know that it is a gross injustice that part of the world indulges in gluttony while other parts of the world starve. So why do we tolerate such inequities? Why do we turn away from their suffering and bury ourselves in our comfortable lives, refusing to even acknowledge those who are sick and dying? How can we go out and eat every Saturday night, consuming every variety of cuisine in the world, spending countless dollars, and cramming incredible amounts of unhealthy calories into our bodies, while children lay dying without a single morsel to eat?……No child on earth should cry tears of hunger. 

ONCE YOU’VE CONSUMED YOUR 2,400 CALORIES FOR THE DAY YOU ARE THEN TAKING FOOD FROM A HUNGRY CHILD.

mikecrawley@cox.net