Every new year, I am inundated with questions about my new year's resolution. Do you want to save this much money? Do you want to buy your first home? Maybe Lew, you should start thinking about getting married? So for this year, I am going to declare a new year's resolution, and I think it is one we can all embrace. For 2009, we should put the human back in humanitarian.
This year, we shall no longer stand for homelessness and hunger in the Unites States. We live in the richest country in the world, and their are 34 million people living in poverty right here. If you listen to or watch the news, you would get the impression that poverty is for people in 1 dollar a month infomercials. It is not, it is right in our front and backyards! In the nation's capital, you don't have to travel five blocks from the White House to see homeless people sleeping on a park bench. This is absolutely disgusting! This is not what we should stand for.
For most people, a humanitarian is a person with a kind heart who will go out of their way to bring kindness to those around them. This kindness falls short on too many counts for too many people though. We live in a society where people will pick up a dog on the side of the road or alone in the park, feed the dog, take the dog in for shots at the vet, and will walk right past homeless people on the street. I wonder how many of those people have ever stopped to help a man or women down on their luck in the park? Would they bother to ask a homeless person where they are from or if they are in need of medical care? Where is the human element in picking up a stray dog or cat, but walking past a man or woman?
So our new year's resolution for 2009 is to put people first, no matter what creed or color. We can combat hunger and homelessness. Last year, there were so many voices carrying the chant "yes we can" and this year we can follow through by putting the human back in humanitarian.
1 comment:
Geez, it's been a long time since I've read your blog. You didn't buy a house or get married since the last time I saw you, did you?
How's this resolution going for Lew, the individual, right now? I daresay our nation may be struggling to meet the call. I can't say I'm much better myself. Where does the current health care debate fit in the picture for you?
Sorry for all the questions. I just returned to blogging (and trying to think about the world again), and I thought yours would be a good first stop to refresh my memory as to what a passionate and opinionated person sounds like.
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