Tues Ten 052609: Rights & Privileges

I’m thinking of freedom again this week.

These have been written, argued, judged, critiqued, cursed, praised, misunderstood, expanded, contracted, and fought for. And, here they are again, straight from the owner’s manual–the U.S. Constitution, Amendments 1-10 in their original form, ratified on December 15, 1791.

1. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

2. A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

3. No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

4. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

5. No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

6. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

7. In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

8. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

9. The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

10. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Make that 1712 Over Lunch

Today I had left-over spaghetti for lunch, along with a homemade chocolate cookie with pink peppermint icing.  Oh, and a giant swig of sweet Southern iced tea. I brought all of it from home–pulled it right out of my refrigerator this morning while Little Drummer Boy was eating a Pop Tart and Squiggle was meticulously picking the marshmallows out of his Lucky Charms to eat first.  It was just after I had mixed 4 bottles of formula for Baby Girl to take to daycare, and my preparations were punctuated by LDB’s perpetual story of transformers and Squig’s repeated “this?” request for clarification each time he picked up an odd-looking blue diamond or pink heart or new hourglass. Why the play-by-play?

Well, Blog Catalog and Heifer International are sponsoring Bloggers Unite for Hunger and Hope today as a way of raising awareness about world hunger. The event prompted me to go back and read a recent post on hunger I wrote on March 11, Global Food Crisis Day, sponsored by Compassion International. I wrote that post over left-over hamburger and Doritoes. The irony is how easy it was, and always is, for me to reach into the refrigerator for left-overs. How remarkable that I always have left-overs. How remarkable that I have a refrigerator. No, it doesn’t really seem that remarkable in Starkville, MS, but the reality is that I’m in a vast minority here.  Refrigerators and left-overs, it turns out, are pretty remarkable.

Bloggers Unite posted a statistic that 15 million children die of hunger each year.  When I do the math, which I so seldom do, I find that 15 million each year translates to just over 41,000 each day.  Every day. Of my life. If hunger remains unchecked. That statistic is different from the fact sheet provided for Global Food Crisis day, which reported 25,000 overall deaths from starvation each day.  The difference highlights the fact that hunger isn’t just about starving.  Now, I don’t claim to be a statistician, and I’m sure there are discrepancies in how the deaths are reported and what counts as hunger-related–a natural by-product of such a prevalent condition in areas and population segments of our world that are already underserved and under-reported.  But, it looks to me like starvation is just the end of the story, an appendix to the bulk of realities about the life-toll of hunger.

Incidentally, one year ago yesterday, Business Week reported a story on the predicted number of bloggers peaking at–you guessed it–15 million. By my ever-so-humble calculations, that’s one blogger for every child who will die of hunger this year.  I’m taking a moment to think about the one child I represent–and might speak in support of.

The hunger redux and recalculation isn’t pretty:
Show me the numbers.  Show me their significance in a 24-hour period.

41,000 children die of hunger each day.

6 million Jews died in the Jewish Holocaust over a 13 year period (1933-1945).  Unchecked hunger will claim that same number of children in 8 months 146 days or less than 5 months.

4575 Coalition military have been killed in Iraq over the last 7 years (2003-2009). Unchecked hunger will claim that same number of children in 4 hours 23 minutes about 2 hours 40 minutes–before I can get supper on my table tonight.

There are approximately 693,000 people in each Congressional district electing a member of the House of Representatives.  Unchecked hunger will claim that same number of children in 28 days about 17 days.

26 million folks watched American Idol last night back in March.  Unchecked hunger will claim that same number of children in just over 2 1/2 years 1 1/2 years.

There are 175 million FaceBook users.  Unchecked hunger will claim that same number of children in just under 20 years just over 11 1/2 years.

There were 306 million residents in the United States as of February 2009.  Unchecked hunger will claim that same number of children in 20 years.  I’ve been out of high school longer than 20 years. I’ve owned things longer than 20 years.

I’ll write it again:

The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 25, Number 1 says that “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food…”

The same rising food costs that make me compain when I buy my 3 gallons of milk each week are diminishing the reach of many hunger relief agencies and organizations.  I’m convicted that the money I spent Saturday on snacks and convenience-builders for my family–3 boxes of honey buns, a bag of Doritoes, a box of Lucky Charms, 2 bags of french fries, 1 cataloupe, 2 bags of chicken nuggets, and a bag of grated cheddar–would likely feed a child on the other side of the world for 3 or 4 months.  Yes, I said MONTHS.

I’m again astounded that in the time I’ve spent eating spaghetti and chocolate cookes and thinking about MY Little Drummer Boy turning a happy, contented, healthy, 40-something pound 4-years old, about 780 people 1712 children somewhere in the world died because of hunger related issues.

“Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You drink? …to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.” (matthew 25:37, 40)

Narrowly Reined Silence

I dread that day. I know I will be required to call upon every grown-up, rational bone in my body to hold back my Mommy protective nature, to be the bigger person, to scrape a life lesson out of one of life’s realities. I dread that day–the day when one of my sweet children comes home crying, hurt by hurtful words spoken about him.

They’re all too young to care right now.  They are blissfully absorbed in their own worlds with their own thoughts and their own stories, unaware of how they are perceived by others around them. I dread the day one of them realizes someone doesn’t like him because of something out of his control–like where he lives or the color of her hair or the style of his blue jeans or the accuracy of his pitch. It makes me sad to even think about that day. I dread them not having the favor of someone, a friend or a teacher or a playmate, whose opinion for however fleeting a moment matters to them.

Perhaps it will be Little Drummer Boy who realizes for the first time someone is laughing AT him and not with him.  It could be Squiggle who realizes someone is running AWAY from him rather than alongside him. Maybe it will be Baby Girl who, for the first time, hears that her smile isn’t as beautiful as we’ve always told her.  I dread that day. It will be the day my heart breaks. And, it will be the day I must take a narrowly reined vow of silence–the day I rely on God’s Spirit and will-power to hold my tongue, to keep myself from lashing out in anger at someone else’s child or some child’s parent or this world in general. It will be another chapter in a series of many lessons I attempt to teach them about where their true and lasting worth lies, and the bittersweet rewards of being who you are. But, it will break my heart nonetheless. For, on that day, they will have lost (if only for a moment) that carefree indifference to what others think. On that day, they will have lost the innocent belief that all the world values them as we do.

Sadly, that day is a reality. It’s coming. Our penchant for hasty judgements and cruel words is evident all around us, and it’s often revealed in surprising ways at surprisingly young ages by surprising people.  Today, I read of a boy, Carl Walker-Hoover, who took his own life less than two weeks ago because of the daily teasing he received.  The accusation: he “acted gay.” Carl would have turned 12 years old today. His mother said in an interview with Essence magazine that being gay had never presented itself as an issue because Carl had not even experienced puberty yet. He was interested in soccer and basketball and football and school and Pokemon.

Today, April 17, also marked the National Day of Silence, an initiative sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) that encourages students to take some form of a vow of silence to raise awareness about school bullying based on perceived or actual sexual orientation and about the silence many students who’ve chosen a LGBT lifestyle feel they must keep to avoid harrassment. Many conservative groups have denounced the initiative as simply a vehicle for promoting and indoctrinating students in the homosexual “agenda”.

But, I am not writing about the “agenda.” And, being gay or straight wasn’t on Carl Walker-Hoover’s radar. And, whether my little ones are accused of being gay or prudes or rednecks or poor white trash or nerds, it’s the same kind of speech that will require my narrowly reined silence as a protective Mother one day.  So, today, I’m writing. Because I don’t want to be Carl Walker-Hoover’s mother.

The problem I have with the conservative approach to so many social issues (including the gay one) is that so often our so-called righteousness is used as a weapon. Our own speech, the names WE call, reveal our refusal to see a created soul of infinite worth to a Creator God. We see what God calls sin, and we name it such.  Yes, but we are blind to the fact that “sinners” are souls. And this is not the way of the Savior I know. The harshest words Jesus spoke in the New Testament were reserved for the religious leaders of the day. The smallest chunks of time in his schedule were given to those religious leaders. Most of his time was spent with prostitutes and cheaters and working class, the uneducated, the disloyal, the confused. And, the time he had with them, he spent slinging, not insults and accusations, but bread and wine and conversation, and more often than not forgiveness.

In the conservative movement I see, we’re running away from ourselves. We run alarmingly close to creating a culture that promotes the kind of stigma and bigotry and soul-blindness that made an 11-year-old boy’s topic of teasing so unbearable. In that culture, it’s better to be dead than to be called gay. That’s not the Savior I know. It’s not the salvation I know.

Tues Ten 040709: Runners Up

It’s lunchtime, and I’ve been perusing my digital diary in search of  inspiration.  I tend to record ideas and quotes or phrases I’ve read there in case I want to come back and think or write about them.  That’s where I usually pull Most Interesting Phrase of the Week entries to highlight.  I’ve found quite a few (actually 10) today.  So, in honor of Michigan State and their hanging around for the last dance, I present this week’s Tuesday Ten: “phrases” that were edged out (or beaten in solid double-digits) by one only momentarily more interesting.

1.  ”The only unavailable choice was whether or not to have Parkinson’s. Everything else was up to me.”
~ Michael J. Fox, in this USA Today article about his upcoming book

2.  ”While claiming to separate politics from science, he has in fact separated science from ethics and has brought the American government, for the first time in history, into supporting direct destruction of innocent human life.”
~ Bishop John D’Arcy in a statement quoted in this Fox News article about President Obama’s scheduled commencement address at Notre Dame

3. “…God-given promise that all are equal.  All are free.  All deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness…”
~ from my notes taken during President Obama’s inauguration address.  [disarmingly poignant juxtaposed with phrase #2]

4. “History is Your story.”
~ from my notes taken during Rick Warren’s prayer at the presidential Inauguration

5. “From a faith standpoint, my God is big enough – and I have told Him I am open enough – to hearing His voice correct me where I’m wrong. You are free to worry about my soul if you want, but I don’t think it’s necessary.”
~ slightly cosmopolitan in this post

6. “The phrase ‘social justice’ can be loaded. To some people it is a political or a liberal conversation, but to me, it is a Kingdom conversation. There are people behind these stories and statistics, and God’s heart for justice burns on their behalf.”
~ Sara Groves on her website

7. ”In a mad world, isn’t the madman who is aware of his madness the only sane person?”
~ Elie Wiesel, from his upcoming book, mentioned in this USA Today article

8. “It take a special kind of courage to face and deal with our past in-completions.  Often these in-completions are the most significant barrier to expressing our full creativity in the present.”
~quote from Gaye & Kathleen Hendricks in this post by Motivation Mama

9. “cartoon dramatization.  results not typical.”
~ fine print on a TV ad I saw for some kind of diet pill.  really? cartoon dramatizations aren’t typical?

10. “If I couldn’t make sense to a table full of liquored-up leftie hippie Buddhist artists, who could I make sense to?”
~ Polly Pagenhart, in a contributing essay for this book

I say that same thing to myself all the time!

780 over Lunch

The fact that I’m writing over my lunch break is not surprising.  It’s something I do often as a break from design work.  But, today, as I eat the hamburger with pineapple and dorito chips I brought from home, the irony of this act is hard to ignore.  Because I’m writing about hunger.  My tiny, muffled stomach growls are silent now and my hunger has been assuaged by leftovers and sweet tea.  But, my hunger is not the hunger some have.  My hunger comes at mid-morning or early afternoon and is postponed by my lunch bag or jelly beans, Double Bubble or  Girl Scout cookies.  My hunger comes in early evening when I open the refrigerator to decide what I will make my family for supper.  It is easily put in it’s place with placemats and pitchers of tea and two boys, a baby and a man around the same table.  My hunger creeps in sometimes before bed and is easily pushed aside by some flavor of chocolate I’ve purchased for just such an occasion.  The hunger for mine is easily kept at bay with juice and goldfish and bottles of formula.  The main concerns for our tummies are how to get food on the table at a decent hour and will they eat what I’ve planned or do I need to also warm some chicken nuggets.  No, my hunger is not the hunger some have.

I was reminded of the hunger others have in my morning drive to work.  The KLOVE radio network is conducting a donation drive for Compassion International today–a day deemed “Global Food Crisis Day”.  The statistic astounded me:

There are 25,000 starvation-related deaths worldwide each day.

Thy typical “marketing” conundrum with statistics of these kinds are that they are sometimes so staggering that they become mind-numbing.  They lose their significance because of sheer size or other-worldliness.  So, to satisfy my inner geek, and to comprehend, I challenged myself (and Google):  Show me the numbers.  Show me their significance in a 24-hour period.

6 million Jews died in the Jewish Holocaust over a 13 year period (1933-1945).  Unchecked hunger will claim that number in 8 months.

4575 Coalition military have been killed in Iraq over the last 7 years (2003-2009). Unchecked hunger will claim that number in 4 hours 23 minutes–before I can get supper on my table tonight.

March Madness will highlight a select few recipients of the 6982 NCAA men’s college basketball scholarships available each year.  Unchecked hunger will claim that number in 6 hours 42 minutes–about 3 basketball games including TV timeouts.

There are pproximately 693,000 people in each Congressional district electing a member of the House of Representatives.  Unchecked hunger will claim that number in 28 days.

26 million folks watched American Idol last night.  Unchecked hunger will claim that number in just over 2 1/2 years.

There are 175 million FaceBook users.  Unchecked hunger will claim that number in just under 20 years.

There were 306 million residents in the United States as of February 2009.  Unchecked hunger will claim that number in 34 years.  Not even one generation’s time to lose an entire multi-generational population.

Here are the numbers on hunger from Compassion International’s world hunger fact sheet:

• 1 person in 7 goes to bed hungry every day
• 1/3 of the world’s population is undernourished
• There are 25,000 starvation-related deaths each day
• More than 300 million children go to bed hungry each night
• Over 12,000 children (one every 7 seconds) die from hunger-related causes each day
• 146 million or 27 percent of children under age 5 in developing countries are underweight
• Nearly 17 percent of babies in developing countries are born with a low birth weight compared with only
• 7 percent of babies in industrialized countries.
• More than 4.4 million children die from malnutrition each year.
• Worldwide, 161 million preschool children suffer chronic malnutrition.

The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 25, Number 1 tells me:

“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food…”

The same rising food costs that make me compain when I buy my 3 gallons of milk each week are diminishing the reach of many hunger relief agencies and organizations.  I’m convicted that the money I spent Saturday on snacks and convenience-builders for my family–3 boxes of honey buns, a bag of Doritoes, a box of Lucky Charms, 2 bags of french fries, 1 cataloupe, 2 bags of chicken nuggets, and a bag of grated cheddar–would likely feed a child on the other side of the world for 3 or 4 months.  Yes, I said MONTHS.  I’m astounded that in the 45 minutes or so I’ve been typing on my laptop and munching chips, about 780 people somewhere in the world starved to death.

Yes, that hunger is another kind.  God help me.

Visit compassion.com to find out more about World Hunger and about how you can help.
Visit freerice.com to build your vocabulary and “buy” rice for people who are hungry.