Saturday, February 26, 2011

injustice

We were watching Grey's Anatomy.
The doctor approached the mother and said, "It's time to just hold him. He's going, and you need to hold him."
The mother proceeded to hold her 10 year old son as his life slipped between their fingers.
I cried.
I really really cried.
It wasn't fair.
I didn't just cry because the TV show was sad.
I cried because I know that story is very real to someone. To many.
I know that situations just like that one occur numerous times every day.
No mother should have to hold their dying child.
It's just not fair.

And that moment of crying has had me thinking the past couple of days.
About what's "fair."
(And also, that my heart is much too compassionate to be watching Grey's Anatomy)
About all the injustice in our world.
The people dying from preventable diseases.
The children left for dead.
The people with no access to clean water.
The children in India with no opportunities in life simply because of where they are in the social system; because they are the offspring of a prostitute.
Human trafficking.
Slavery.
Child Labor.
Genocide.
The LRA.
There are so, so many.

It has made me angry.
Just flat. out. angry.

It's like when you hear the statistic, "10 billion would provide clean water to all, worldwide." Which sounds like a lot.
10. billion. dollars.
Then this is added to that statistic: "Americans spend 450 billion every year at Christmas."
And then that 10 billion dollars doesn't seem so big.

And that makes me angry. I mean, can't we all just get together and one year simply give 25% of what we would spend on Christmas and get clean water to everyone? Clean water. To everyone. That's life. That's literally giving life to millions and millions of people. And it's so do-able.

It's so do-able that the fact that it hasn't been done makes me sick.
And so so angry.
This world we live in, it's disgusting.
And it's making me angrier and angrier by the day.

Yes, the problems are too big for one to handle.
But that doesn't mean I can't try.
I hope that when my time here is done, it can be said that I did something to stop injustice in this world.

2 comments: