What We Forget

There's a twitter photo out there of a skinny black kid looking perplexed at the photographer with a 'You've got to be kidding me' countenance. The caption under the photo says:

"You have five gallons of clean water that constantly refills and you shit in it?"

The photo sort of stopped me in my tracks as did the shot above. We are here, talking about trading in our I-Phones for the update, and there are people there, wondering if they will live through the day.

And I don't mean to bring you down or to turn it into an infomercial that ends with you becoming a sponsor for a kid who can eat three meals a day for less money than what you can find in the cushions of your couch, but we do a real disservice if we forget.

And this isn't just in India, people. We have plenty of people who are starving right here.

And it sort of makes me angry and sad when the blanket statements are hung out there to gain momentum.

Do you think, do you honestly think that people, if given the choice would rather stay on welfare and food stamps?

I really doubt that most people have the chance to choose to be lazy. Not people in the position of not eating anything all day.

Look, there are bad choices out there. There are people who commit fraud at the low end of the wealth pole.

But don't kid yourself: most of them don't have the means, or the smarts, or the family tree that allows for climbing, and it shames me to know that we don't feel shame in ourselves for allowing that to fester.

It's easier to ignore.

It's easier to tell ourselves that we have to go to work every day whether we want to or not, but think about this...

...was the deck stacked against you from day one?

We have always called ourselves the land of opportunity, and for many of us it is all out there for the taking.

But it's not all of us.

Some people are born in absolute misery.

Right here.

Mere miles from where you're playing Song Pop on your I-Phone.

They are not considering Romney or Obama.

They aren't trying to figure out ways to cheat the system.

They are not thinking about cashing in their 401K for a trip to the Gulf of Mexico.

They're starving.

Try not to forget that.