You're asking me to do what?

Over the past couple of months I’ve been thinking about what issues I’m really passionate about as a young person living in America. There are a plethora of battles to fight and the media enjoys telling us what issues should be important to us – currently the Clinton/Obama bickering, gas prices, foreclosures, and the latest celebrity breakups. Frankly, the media spotlight keeps us heavily sedated with 10 second soundbytes and endless punditry, which spawns cheeky conversations around the water cooler instead of action oriented drives to truly make a difference. I’m not as concerned about who’s picking up the red phone at 3a.m., Senator Clinton, as I am about making significant change.

Before Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated 40 years ago, April 4th, 1968, he was planning a Poor People’s campaign, a new phase of the Civil Rights movement. Many people, including myself, were not made aware of that campaign until recently. King saw poverty as a major issue sweeping the globe. Poverty reaches across color lines. The Poor People’s Campaign was to culminate in a March on Washington demanding economic aid to the poorest peoples of America. King strived to create a diverse, multiracial army of people empowered to fight for a poor people’s bill of rights (Economic Bill of Rights). Under the Economic Bill of Rights the campaign asked for $30 Billion anti-poverty package creating housing, jobs, and guaranteed annual income for America’s impoverished. The Economic Bill of Rights did not make it through Congress. This Poor People’s Campaign is an example of a revolutionary movement. King was a visionary with his finger on the pulse of the community, not the pulse of Washington.

We’re electing leaders who do not have their fingers on the pulse of the community. They do not live in the community. They do not work in the community. They do not venture into the community until its time for reelection. They did not elect to set up shop in the community, as Obama did, as a community organizer empowering people to find jobs, eliminate crime and gangs, and rally for better schools. They are out of place and out of touch, yet we, who are supposed to be an “enlightened” people, continue to make ignorant decisions concerning our country’s future progress.

King’s Poor People’s Campaign resonates today as global poverty grows. We live in a global community and it’s essential that everyone understands that fact. One in seven people in the world goes to bed hungry. Nearly 1 Billion people live in substandard housing without access to clean water, adequate sanitation or food. The United Nations reports that the number of slum dwellers worldwide will increase to 2 Billion within the next 30 years. When the AIDS statistics are mentioned in conjunction with the poverty statistics, we enter calamitous territory. http://www.one.org/issues/ There are many here in the US who have lost their jobs, can not find jobs, and can not pay the mortgage. There are houses without books in them, without food, without basic water, electricity, and other utilities we take for granted. We have a global crisis and the gap between rich and poor continues to widen. That economic divide knows no color or race or ethnicity or gender. Poverty does not discriminate.

In thinking about issues that resonate with me, global poverty and disease (which run comorbid) are among my top ten issues for change. When I come home to my cozy little apartment, I think about the little girl, age 7, living in FEMA toxic housing outside of New Orleans who has developed asthma due to her living conditions. When I open a bottle of water, I think about the little boy in sub-Saharan Africa who walks 5 miles one way every morning to gather water for his family. His mother died of AIDS a year ago and he cares for his 5-year old sister and grandmother who both are stricken with the disease. There is little food and little access to adequate medicines. We have a major global catastrophe on our hands and we’ve become numb. What will it take for us to wake up?

P.S. If any of you are wondering about what this has to do with my journey through Singleville, you’re missing the point. Being an advocate for change is a HUMAN responsibility.

The ONE Campaign - http://www.one.org/ - Wear a White Band today. Make a difference. ONE is Americans of all beliefs and every walk of life - united as ONE - to help make poverty history.
Oxfam - http://www.oxfam.org/ - Oxfam International is a confederation of 13 organizations working together with over 3,000 partners in more than 100 countries to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice.
Friends of New Orleans - http://www.friendsofneworleans.org/ - Friends of New Orleans is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization that provides a vehicle for people in the US and abroad who care about this region, to declare their support and get involved.
Join Red - http://www.joinred.com/manifesto/ - (RED), created by Bono (U2 singer and activist) and Bobby Shriver, is a brand designed to engage business and consumer power in the fight against AIDS in Africa. (RED) works with the world's best brands to make unique (PRODUCT) RED-branded products and direct up to 50% of their gross profits to the Global Fund to invest in African AIDS programs with a focus on the health of women and children. (RED) is not a charity or "campaign". It is an economic initiative that aims to deliver a sustainable flow of private sector money to the Global Fund. (PRODUCT) RED launched on March 1, 2006 in the UK and on October 13th, 2006 in the US. Current product partners include Converse, Gap, Motorola, Emporio Armani, Apple, Hallmark, Dell, Microsoft and American Express (UK only). Since its launch in March 2006, more than $100 million has been generated by (RED) partners and events for the Global Fund. (RED) money is already at work on the ground in Africa, providing antiretroviral treatment for HIV positive individuals, funding HIV prevention programs, feeding and educating children orphaned by AIDS and providing the low-cost treatments needed to reduce the risk of transmission of HIV from mother to child. There are currently more than 45,000 people on ARV’s (antiretroviral medication) in Ghana, Swaziland and Rwanda due to support from funds from the Global Fund and (RED). Lesotho has just been announced as the newest (RED) grant country.