Faster than a Speeding Bullet

"True humility means most strenuous and constant endeavour entirely directed towards the service of humanity." - Letter to Narandas Gandhi (G.), MMU/I, October 7, 1930

I don't know how to respond to the images on TV of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.  I can give money and I may, and every little bit helps, but I want to be on the ground helping rebuild and that is not possible.

My duties are here with my family and my foster daughters and the struggles in my community to keep the government assisting minorities and the poor.

But these duties seem so mundane.

I dream of taking food and water to the people who's lives have been devastated by natural disaster.  I fantasize about being on the front lines of the nonviolent protests in the Middle East.  I want to help the children in Africa or India who have no food or clean water or shelter.

But this is not what God has called me to do.  God has given me a wife who writes grants for non-profit organizations to help the poor and minorities.  God has given me teenage girls who's parents have abandoned them.  God has given me a state government, Texas, USA, that is at the bottom in the way it takes care of its children.

And when I remember that I am not a superhero in tights and a cape, what God has called me to do seems very important.

I pray for the people of Japan.

Egypt

"I think political life should be an echo of private life and that there cannot be any divorce between the two."  Speech at Government High School, Bangalore, 1915

A friend said I must have lots of things to say about what is happening today in Egypt and the Middle East and the non-violent uprisings going on.

I don't.

I don't know enough even though I have been to Egypt in the past five years and spoke to many citizens about many things.  Even though I have close friends who have live in Cairo for, at least, the last 10 years.

I don't know what the poor and the working class struggle with on a day to day basis.  I don't know how the police behave during a routine traffic stop.  I don't understand what role religion plays in people's lives.  I don't have to buy groceries or drive across town or pay taxes or serve in the military.

And I know very little about non-violence.

I know there is a difference between choosing non-violence and just not having the guns to demand what you want.