My Generation

Tonight is brought to you by a tall half peppermint half raspberry mocha, and an apparent fixation on all things 60s.

"We are the first generation in history that can end extreme poverty. That's our good fortune, our challenge and our responsibility"
- Jeffrey Sachs, Author

Y'know, it's probably true. We probably can end poverty in our lifetime. We probably could have done it twenty years ago, too. But we didn't. And as cynical as I may sound, I honestly don't believe that we will do it in the next twenty years. As a society, we haven't even figured out how to treat each other equally. We haven't cured AIDS, cancer, or the common cold.

What really bothers me is that we could do these things. It isn't a matter of lack of materials. I'm sure enough food is thrown out of North American homes each day to keep someone else fed. It sickens me how much food I let go to waste because I cannot be bothered to cook it before its expiration date. We've all been told to eat everything on our plates because somewhere in Africa there is a little boy or girl who didn't get dinner that night. Yet I'm sure we all realized that no-one was about to ship our dinner across the oceans to give it to the aforementioned starving child.

I recall reading a comic about Superman giving food to a remote country. And he had to do it the next day. Then the other hungry people decided they needed help too. One day, Superman didn't come.

I used to volunteer with this organization in Whalley. We gave out hot meals and clothes to whoever showed up, and some nights it got pretty busy. Soon, we started to recognize the regulars. Sure, there we were helping, but why did they keep coming back? Weren't we making their lives better so that they didn't need to be dependent on out handouts? Give a man a fish...

I believe in trying to make the world a better place. I just don't believe that we can ever solve everything. Despite the world's efforts, there will always be someone who doesn't have a home to go to. There will always be someone who didn't get dinner. But maybe tomorrow there will be one less. And maybe twenty years from now we'll be a lot closer to the perfect world than we are at this very moment.

Maybe.