My parents, grandparents and great grandparents lived through the horrific days of the Great Depression. Though I was born 20 odd years after its beginning and 10 odd years after the beginning of World War II, I was colored by their experiences and stories of the hardships they faced and how they managed to survive both through the sacrifices they were willing to make.Today we face similar circumstances and we stand at a turning point that will determine whether we move away from greed and fear and selfishness or whether we embrace those self destructive values.
While listening to the "town hall" Presidential debate, one woman asked the candidates what I believe was the central question we face today. A child of that Depression, 78 year old Feora from Chicago, asked via the Internet.
"Since World War II, we have never been asked to sacrifice anything to help our country except the blood of our heroic men and women. As President, what sacrifices will you ask every American to make to help restore the American dream and to get out of the economic morass that we are now in?"
McCain meandered around the question, went to his talking points and talked, in broad terms about eliminating waste.
Obama talked about how 9/11 and how the country came together and how Bush missed the opportunity to utilize our willingness to sacrifice by telling us "to go shopping." He mentioned we need to think about how we can reduce our energy needs and talked about expanding the Peace Corps. All good answers but still, in my mind, he missed the point Feora was making.
What neither did and what disappointed me about both was to make a direct call to Americans to get involved on a local, regional, state, national and world-wide basis. That is exactly what my family and yours did. The results of their sacrifices gave us the world we inhabit today.
And we have become lazy and focused on a consumer driven life style rather than dedicating ourselves to building a world of compassion and selfless dedication to others. Rather than ask "What's in it for me?" we should be asking "What can I do to help those around me?" and "What are my responsibilities to humanity?" The corresponding sacrifice is that we ask for help when faced with seemingly overwhelming situations. I have never asked that I did not also receive. And I have gained that measure of humility and sense of belonging that comes with asking for help that allows me to be a human being and part of the world around me.
We took the gifts our families sacrificed to give us and transformed them into a society which comprises five percent of the world's population and consumes 25 percent of its resources. We have become addicts of a soul-stealing lifestyle we can no longer maintain. More things are not the answer. Sacrifice and care for the people around us and the world beyond our borders can and will ignite a world where ignorance and hate and fear will not consume us but a world where compassion and integrity and dignity will feed us.
Our choices today will determine whether we as peoples of the world will survive or whether we will doom ourselves to extinction. The choice is ours. I know what my choice is. What is yours?
