Outrageous

Well, I think it is time to get these thoughts out of my head and down in writing.  This is more about something that has been on my heart than specifically about our adoption, but to me the two are married.

At Sandy Hook Elementary on December 14, 2012 a young man entered an elementary school and opened fire killing 20 children and 6 adults.  The media showed the country what had happened and we were outraged.  How could one man ever justify this kind of action? How was he able to do it?  What can we do to stop it from happening again?  The school locked down, the cops became more alert, and the politicians legislated.  I am not going to comment on whether I think the actions being taken are the right ones - just that this outrageous occurrence spurred people into action.  People from across the country looked at this event and it struck their hearts with sorrow, anger, and fear.  They hated that it happened, they sympathized with the pain the families who lost loved ones were feeling, and parents everywhere felt a little less safe sending their kids to school the next day.  At least that's how I felt.

As horrible as this was, it pointed out one thing very clearly to me: I am blessed to live in a country where the death of children outrages everyone.  Now here's the part I don't understand - why is it that the murder of 20 American children stirs nationwide outrage while the millions of children that die worldwide go unnoticed?  Since I know the most about the DRC statistics, let's just talk about that for a minute. According to USAID, there are 460,000 children under the age of 5 that die every year.  To put that in perspective - that is equivalent to the number of deaths due to the Sandy Hook shooting happening every 22 minutes all year long. And that is just the DRC.  What makes this even more concerning is that unlike our inability to stop every nut with a gun or other instrument of death, most of these deaths are preventable.

Why is it that we care so much for 20 American kids and not for all the kids dying around the world?  Is it the fact that it is happening so quickly that we have become callous to the situation?  Or maybe that the problem is so enormous that we don't think our caring about it matters? Or maybe it is because there are so many other people that care, we don't need to do anything personally?

Here is what I think is outrageous: every American has heard these words "We hold these truths to be self- evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness..." and so few of take them to heart.  If you believe EVERY man is created equal, then why do we care more for one American we don't know than for one foreigner who is equally unknown?  How do we justify the belief that all men have the right to life when there are so many dying from things we can help prevent?  How do we justify the belief that all men have the right to liberty when so many are oppressed by situation or by government?  How do we justify the belief that all men have the right to pursue happiness when there are so many that don't even have food to eat or clothes to wear?  How can we say we believe these things and then do nothing?

I am not saying we can fix the World - I am only saying you shouldn't give up trying to help people indiscriminately. Don't be callous to things just because you don't want to believe they are happening.  Let those little people who you hear about suffering and dying break your heart just like the death of the kids at Sandy Hook did.  Let it make you angry that there are children who can't even get one meal a day.  Let it be outrageous to you and move you to action.