An article written for the Huffington Post written by the CEO of the non-profit I work for discusses the light we carry and the ways we can share it with one another. I enjoy the metaphor. I agree with the central concept of shared humanity. But I struggle with one line:
We would do well to realize that when we help someone else find a way out of the darkness caused by poverty or isolation, we find ourselves becoming more nourished. As we give freely of our light, of our wealth and our privilege, our brightness is not diminished. It is expanded.
Is sharing our light truly free, or does it cast new shadows?
What is wealth to light?
Do we really give our privilege? If we did, wouldn’t sharing privilege with others actually mean giving privilege up altogether? Is not our focus on giving just a sign of the privilege we enjoy?
These are hard questions and I am glad that my CEO has embraced the debate of SocialService vs. Social Justice and pulled Jewish Family Service of Seattle into this discussion.
I know it is a little late, but I finally know what I want for Christmas. This year I want to help my mom get a lawyer to defend against a false accusation, so I started this campaign on Fundly. If you wanted to but forgot to get me a present (or did not know what to get since I didn’t want anything), you should donate instead. I’ll never know you forgot if you make a donation!
Click to visit my fundraising campaign page.
My mother is an honest and hard-working woman. She raised me as a single mother and we fought through the tough times together. This false accusation comes on the heels of more tragedy – a year ago on her birthday our house was robbed and the year before that our apartment was flooded. This all to the woman who always places my needs above her own, no matter what the cost to herself. For years she supported me and cared for my now deceased grandfather. My mother is my hero. And she needs my help. Please, help me help my mother by donating to support her defense.
We complain too much. I hate how we say “First World Problems.” The phrase pisses me off. It is like we want to be ignorant and snobby. We act like saying this acknowledges the real suffering and the real problems in the world. We act as if that false acknowledgement somehow makes our complaints better. Well, it doesn’t. In fact, it just makes it easier to justify the things we do – as if we are not already masters at that. If you have never heard “First World Problems,” lucky you. Watch these quick videos to get a snarky lesson in FWP’s:
Now that you are either educated on FWP’s or offended I am calling you ignorant and snobby, think about making a “First World Problems” Jar (see #4 on the list). Don’t kid yourself – the jar won’t fix any problems. You and I will still be lucky, privileged, advantaged, or whatever you want to call it. But perhaps it can help us change our perceptions.
Don’t just make the jar and forget it. And don’t contribute to FWP’s by making a meme. When you are guilty of complaining about First World Problems, write down your complaint and add it to the jar with whatever you decide your fiscal penalty will be. At the end of the month, sit down with your friends, family, or whoever shares the jar and discuss your complaints (or if alone, reflect on it). Think about why the complaints are lame and why you are privileged just to make them. Then share your experience with others who might also need a reminder that they are lucky.
I just want to share this because I think it is excellent programming that should be put in use at every college in America, if not the world. One of my best friends lead this year’s 14 Days to End Sexual Violence and I am so proud of her!
This summer I met a young woman named Lydia during my 4K for Cancer ride. Sitting in a room surrounded by strangers, she courageously shared her story of her fight with cancer. Diagnosed as she was about to enter law school, Lydia deferred for a year for treatment. This year she made it through orientation but once again is going through surgeries to fight cancer. Yet despite all the time she spends fighting for herself she never stops fighting for others.
This year Lydia’s Christmas wish is to fund a human rights lawyer for those who are in need of defense but cannot afford it. Defending human rights is Lydia’s passion, and she has this to say about her fundraising goal:
For Christmas this year, I want to raise money for an IJM human rights lawyer to stand up for a victim of violence throughout the legal process. Without an excellent lawyer, poor people have no way to seek justice for abuse–and criminals stay on the streets, where they can harm other vulnerable people. However, with a strong advocate in the court, survivors receive justice and communities are protected.
Providing a lawyer for just one month costs $1550, and I hope to reach this goal by December 10, 2013. Please join me 🙂
Lydia’s cause is pure and her perseverance alone is beyond comprehension. As always, I am proud and somewhat in awe of her optimism and resilience. Please, if you can spare it, please help Lydia reach her goal. Donate now. And if you want to learn more about her story, check out her blog.
To all those who supported me in my 4K ride – this means a lot to me. I rode for Lydia for 70 days and it was her willpower and determination that inspired me through the hardest days. For me it is not just about the lawyer or even human rights: it is about supporting the people in this world who surpass all the odds and put others before themselves to make a difference. Lydia is one of those people. Help her out.
Casey Schafer, nne of my friends and teammate on the 2013 4K for Cancer Team Seattle is off to her next adventure next summer. She will be spending a week in Haiti through a program called Lifetree. Lifetree has partnered with a ministry in Haiti that runs a vocational training, pre-natal, delivery, and post-natal care facility. Her work will improve the facility and help in the vocational training of local women. Check out a short video about the experience from the perspective of an alumnus.
Casey is responsible and passionate and looking to make a difference. I fully support her, and made my own donation of $10. Please, help Casey get to Haiti by matching my donation! You can donate online on her Fundly page.
There are hundreds of reasons why a person or a family could become homeless. From financial insecurity to health woes, homelessness is often a result of several factors coming together to create a situation where people must make difficult choices between food, shelter, and health. Here is a glimpse at three broad factors leading to homelessness:
One Bump Away
If you are poor, you are essentially an illness, an accident, or a paycheck away from living on the streets. – National Coalition for the Homeless
Think about it – you need not even be considered impoverished. You could be doing fairly well, with a job that allows you to live a decent life. Things might be tight sand you do not have a lot of savings, but you always get by and you are never seriously in need of assistance. Suddenly unexpected tragedy occurs: you lose your job or maybe you sustain a serious injury. Some people are lucky enough to have insurance and support networks to smooth over this difficult time, but what if you don’t? What happens when the money stops coming in but the bills keep piling up? Would you choose to keep your home and go hungry, or would you like to continue eating but live on the streets. There are choices real people make.
2. Bad Public Policy
I already touched on minimum wage, but other public policies contribute to the abundance of homelessness. For instance, programs like TANF have been the target of political attempts to reduce social security and/or control budget deficits. Often cuts cripple the effectiveness of these programs and even when cuts do not occur inflation eventually decreases the real value of assistance.
Likewise, low-income housing is not providing enough living space for poor families and individuals. While price ceilings and government subsidies are the ugly face of affordable housing, larger policy goals create the structure supporting unaffordable housing. Zoning regulations and development goals strongly influence property values and community development. Uninspired laissez-faire policies and tremendous loopholes allow companies to export jobs and horde profits at the executive level, reducing wages and increasing unemployment at all socioeconomic levels. And of course there is health care – I don’t think anyone needs an explanation on how the mess that is healthcare and insurance could contribute to homelessness.
3. Mental Illness, Substance Abuse, and Domestic Abuse
Mental illness is a factor in homelessness, not because the mentally ill are unable to live normal lives but because they often cannot receive the assistance they need to do so. Things like routine treatment and simple household assistance would greatly increase the ability for many mentally ill people to live independent lives.
Substance abuse is both a cause and a product of homelessness. Substance abuse alone is unlikely to cause someone to become homeless – many well-off people are alcoholics and junkies. It is when addiction is combined with poverty, job loss,or other factors that homelessness becomes a serious threat.
Domestic abuse is unlikely to be the first thing that comes to mind when we consider reasons for homelessness. Women and children are the most likely to be victims of domestic abuse, but men too experience it. Victims living in poor conditions with little resources may have to choose between continuing to live in an abusive situation or fleeing to the streets.
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The point here is this: there are many causes of homelessness, not all of which are immediately the fault of the person who s homeless. For sure, many times homelessness can be avoided by hard work and determination – but when this occurs we do not hear about it. Those people continue living their lives and they do not end up a statistic. We do not see them in the street. The people we see are those who, for whatever reason, did not or could not overcome these challenges.
The homeless in America have many stories. The next time you find yourself making a judgement about a homeless person, ask yourself: what is their story?
Normally I do not give anything to homeless people with two exceptions for when: (1) I am having a most excellent day and I just feel like sharing my life high and (2) the people are being what I tell myself is deserving: playing music, helping people with directions, or otherwise being productive. But two days ago I tried to change this philosophy when, while sitting at a red light, I tried to give a homeless man $1. I was thinking about how I was driving a van full of food for the needy and how my job is (partly) to help the homeless. And how in my personal life I ignore the homeless people I meet. I wanted to give a dollar. I wanted to do something different. Continue reading →
So the last time we did a cleanup we actually cleaned the wrong road. Oh well, we are all better for it! This time we cleaned a 2 mile stretch of Rt. 34 between Gettysburg and Biglerville. The last route was almost entirely lined with fields or wooded areas. There was a tremendous amount of trash, mostly alcohol, plastic bottles, and food containers. This Sunday our route was mostly residential and businesses properties with a few open field or wooded lots scattered between them. There were still a ridiculous amount of cigarette butts everywhere, but the dichotomy between inhabited and open land was striking.
The amount of trash increased from inhabited to uninhabited properties by probably a factor of 10. It was amazing to see how concentrated the trash was in areas where there was no visible home or store. Beyond the usual food containers and bottles we found: a full car bumper and muffler, a broken wooden door, a shovel and handsaw, a huge wire cage, a laundry basket, some old signs…the list goes on. In front of inhabited properties there was very little litter, and what we found was mainly cigarettes.
So, the logical question I asked was: is the difference between litter on inhabited and uninhabited properties caused by maintenance, or is it caused by a littering behavior that distinguishes between property types? The fact that there was a significant amount of cigarette butts on inhabited properties hints that the lack of litter here is not because the owners are cleaning it up. In fact, cigarette butts are often not thought of as litter by the people who discard them. Perhaps then the cause is people distinguishing between the property types. My gut instinct tells me this distinction is probably the part, if not all, of the answer. Unfortunately, this would mean that people who litter not only disregard the social norm of keeping the roadways clean, but also clearly lack respect for nature.
As the Service Coordinator for the 4K Seattle team, I am helping coordinate the Pedal Pal program for our riders. We are looking for anyone who has survived or is currently battling cancer and is interested in connecting with one of our riders. Pedal Pals have the rare experience of actively “participating” in the cross-country journey by corresponding with a rider during each leg of the trip. Pedal Pals can be any age, located anywhere in the world, and in any stage of their cancer journey. They will receive updates about the ride, pictures, and newsletters with information about the trip, nutritional information, and more over the course of summer 2013!
If you know someone who would be interested in participating in this program, please refer them to the link below. Also, please help me promote this opportunity by tweeting or updating your Facebook status with this short plug:
Are you a cancer survivor or are you currently in active treatment? Want to be a pen pal for a rider on my 4K for Cancer team as we bike across America this summer? Click to learn more or sign-up: http://4kforcancer.org/pedalpals/
