Poverty: It's blog action day 2008!

Caution! Ramble in progress!

What do I know about poverty?  Very little actually. I’ve been very blessed in this life.  I know Bono from U2, Bob Geldof and all the others that organized LIVE Aid. Live Aid was a multi-venue rock music concert held on July 13, 1985.  It was a wonderful awareness campaign that actually worked! Thanks to those that worked hard in that organization and the paths and doors that have opened since then for Africa. (it’s still only a drop in the bucket.)

Farm Aid came on the scene a bit after that if I remember. We are just now beginning to understand the importance of small family farms and how our survival can be impacted by an ever changing global economy.  I am a back to basics kind of person. Who knew that thinking globally and acting locally wasn’t just for the save the whales campaign!

One.org is one of those organizations that opened up after Live Aid and is about awareness of sickness and hunger in the 3rd world countries.  I’m signed up with them and get e-mails but shamefully I’m not that active. Perhaps I should turn more to my brothers and sisters that have need.  Laura Reed and The Deep Pocket have a really neat song called one world.  The lyrics center around us not needing a first world and a third world, but needing just one world.  We only take what it is we need…

I grew up very active in the youth group at my local church.  We all went on several mission trips to help those in our own country that have needs.  Some of the places included a Mississippi Choctaw reservation, John’s Island, SC, and Downtown Atlanta even.  The senior center was called the Bethlehem Center.  We did odd jobs like mow and rake the yards of those that were too feeble or lacked the energy to do this kind of up keep.  We also spent some time in the community center and visited with some of the folks.  That is where I met Willy Scott.  He was an elderly gentleman sitting at a table alone.  As a youth, I plopped down with him and struck up some conversation.  We talked for at least an hour and determined that he worked for my great grandfather in Swainsboro, GA!!  The great grandfather that I’d never met… Willy Scott was able to open a window that would never have been opened in my own family history!  I know we were all there to help these folks and it did feel good to help others, but I came away with a true jewel on this trip.

Thanks for your time.

Happy Washing!

~Regina