I was at work on my break and I was reading the newspaper and I came across an article about a group of children in Haiti that died from malnutrition. A young boy, five years old, weighed 19.5 pounds another little girl couldn't stand so she was hung on to the scale. The children were literally skin and bones. Another article in the same paper talked of a man in Africa that doesn't sleep at night to protect his family's food. At that moment I realized what I have known for a long time my role in this world has to be to help the less fortunate of the world. when I read the article about the children I wanted to cry, I did inside. Americans consume many times more than we produce.I worked at a summer program that fed urban children during the summer, we threw away pounds of food everyday. I work at wal-mart now and they throw away food to make room for new food, or if it is one day bad. This food could feed so many. I have decided that I will not longer eat food on Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a holiday of excess. Don't get me wrong I am not putting down and saying don't celebrate cause I will be, but one American will possibly eat more in this one day than many people around the world will eat their entire short lives. This is how I will give thanks for the life I have. I will sacrifice food this day to show my gratitude for being safe at night, a warm place to sleep, at least two meals a day. leisure time and the many luxuries I own or enjoy. I have to help these people cause I truly hurts me that things like this are allowed to happen people should not have to live like that. What makes me so angry is that most people really don't care. They say that they have to look out for their own, but before you are an American, black/white/Asian/Latino,liberal/conservative, catholic/protestant you are a human being. How dare anyone turn their back to the plight of their fellow man. I have to help these people. I can start by making a sacrifice, as a token of goodwill that I will help more one day. A sacrifice for the greater good.
Wow it has been a long road, but we made it Americans, we have taken another leap toward true equality. I was so happy and proud when I saw the words PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA on CNN. I had joy in my heart and was thankful for the direction that our great nation was taking. I must tell everyone to hold President-elect Obama to the same standards that we hold President Bush to. Now to the subject, the day after the election I heard the story of Lindesy Boggs woman who goes to my University who made some very racist comments on her Facebook profile. One thing that this historic event did do that is good or bad depends on how you see it was to open up wounds and expose many people as the racist that they truely are. This hurt me to a certain extent, but I guess this could be healthy. Our nation has been very PC for a long time so it will be hard to see what people really feel. I believe that most racism today is institutionalized racism that is just apart of the culture, but is so tame that once educated would quickly fade, but then you have people like Lindsey Boggs who are just classically racist. Then I found a post someone made on Facebook that had a pic of people and racist statements that they made, I wish that I could link it. I can't do that cause it will tell you to sign in, but this is just sad. I really hope that President-elect Obama can begin to unite this nation cause we need it bad from what I have seen, but this could just and I hope is only a minority. Another thing whether it that a lot of black people are claiming that if you disagree with President-elect you must be racist. That is far from the truth. This is the same argument People make with if you disagreed with President Bush you were anti-American. Stupid! Then I was at work and someone said they were leaving the country cause Obama was elected, and a coworker said he was racist. This is the same thing plenty of people Black people included when Bush was reelected so are they racist. This needs to stop, please stop being so sensitive. Racism is stupid and it need to stop.
