Why I Do It?

People often ask me and my family......Why? Why go over there and help people? Actually, that is probably the most asked question I've heard ever since my family started this. The only answer I've yet to come up with is to stare at them blankly and hope that all of a sudden they realize that every thing is not actually OK every where. Sadly, it doesn't seem to work that way. So this post is about why I do what I do.

If I were to respond it would probably be something like, "Well if I was in the situation, I hope someone would do the same for me." Which is completely true. But there's more. There always is. I would also feel the burning urge to yell in the person's face, "WHY NOT?!" I mean, honestly. People are dying. Starving everyday. Being murdered. Genocide. Why Not? It's the right thing to do.

I really hate to say this, and I wouldn't if I could think of another way to, but to me it appears Americans do NOT see Africans as equals. We don't see them as equals to us. If we did there would be more being done. What I'm trying to say is that, if the United States had as much death, starvation, poverty, and disease as Africa did right now, people would be helping. We would all pitch in and help find a solution. We would change it. But in Africa, all this is still going on. It has been going on for awhile, and if we don't do something, it will continue.

The death

Disease

Suffering

Poverty

Starvation

and Genocide...

It will all continue if we don't change. But see, it's not just in Africa. That homeless man you pass everyday on your way to work or school, he is part of this subcononsious discrimination on people who have less then we do. When you don't give him money assuming he will spend it on booze or liquor, how is that any better then just taking from him. If we do not begin to see these people, these humans, just as we are, as our equals then how are we to say that we are better. People say they want to stop the hate and stop the discrimination, but what we do everyday when we see that homeless person but just keep going, when we see the sign "Need Help" but continue on with our conversation, when we see on the news the place where the water flooded or the ground shook but change the channel and finish supper, when we do all that, how are we any better then the man shouting the "N" word outloud, or the man with the swastika on his jacket. When it is all said and done and you look back on your life, what do you want to see?

We CAN Change The World. We're Just Taking It One Step At A Time.

We Can Make A Difference

This is a post from awhile back that I did for a school project and ended up putting it on my mom's blog. It describes perfectly, 110% how I feel about Africa and the support for it.

It’s a subject that I love to talk about. It’s my favorite place in the world. Waking up and feeling the warm air and no humidity. Looking at the African sky. Knowing everyone that you know is halfway around the world, but not really caring. Walking through the huge crowds of people.

But mainly….

the poor.

The orphaned.

The diseased.

The homeless.

The widow.

They all are related in one way. They are the suffering. They are the ones I wake up and fall asleep thinking about. A lot of people think music is my life. That all I do and all I want to do is play music. They’re wrong. Music is like a shelter, a tent in the backyard, or a hotel to get away to. But in Africa, with the suffering, that’s my home. That’s my life. I’ve been called crazy, insane, out of my mind, and even stupid for going over there. But in all honesty, I love it there more then I do here. I don’t get how we can sit around and eat and drink all we want, but half way around the world people are eating trash so that they can live another day. They are drinking water that might end their lives but they have to.

That’s not the main problem. The problem is, people KNOW. They KNOW people are DYING. They KNOW about these DISEASES, and they certainly KNOW about the WARS and POVERTY. All of this.

The death, the disease, the war, the hunger, and the poverty.

It’s a preventable and avoidable disaster.

But it’s because people don’t want to see it, so they turn a cheek. They want to sit in their homes, schools, and churches and pretend its all ok.

But I believe that when we ignore the orphan and the widow, it’s us who are taking their family. When we look away from the homeless and the poor, it is us who rob them. When we turn a cheek to the people eating trash and drinking unhealthy water, it is us who are polluting them. When we see the child soldier but decide to do nothing, it is us who place the gun in his hands. When we refuse to hear the cries of a mother who is holding a child that she has infecting with the same disease that will kill them both, it is us who are infecting them. When we don’t listen or pay attention to the voices of the lost and denied, it is us who reject and deny them. So, you can pretend its ok, rob the poor, pollute the dying, take away the family of the orphaned and widowed, place the gun in a child’s hands, and infect a mother and her baby, or you can defend the defenseless, give life to the dying, take the gun and the war and the death away. You can listen to the voices and cries of the lost and denied. You can deliver hope to the hopeless. We are all human.

Bono once said, “Where you live shouldn’t determine IF you live.”

So as you read this think, have you listened?

Have you helped the ones in need?

Have you defended the ones who can’t defend themselves? I mean, how are we any different?

I guess all I can say now is, when we forsake the poor and needy, we are just forsaking ourselves….

I guess that's my way of saying.....

We CAN Change The World. We're Just Taking It One Step At A Time

My First Post

Hello,

      My names Coleton. This is my first blog post EVER. So I figured I'd start it off good.

Acouple of weeks ago my class was learning about the Holocaust. We had a speaker come in who had went to some of the camps after WW2. At first, I thought of it as a type of "free day" from doing work. Then about half way through him talking he mentioned something about the eyes of the people who's pictures were on the wall. The eyes of the victims. Then it clicked in me.

On my second trip to Africa we went to a mountain. The original plan was to pass out dresses to little girls on the mountain, but as usual things never go as planned. The first 2 dresses might have went to the little girls. Then the boys started getting them. "My sister is asleep. I'll give it to her," seemed to be the phrase everyone was yelling. I just stood back, holding a pair of shoes, and watched the chaos from a safe distance.

Then a little boy, no older then 7 or 8, came up to me. He said something that still keeps me awake thinking.  "No motha, No fatha, Food." He had on dirty and torn clothes. His shoes weren't shoes at all. He had a little wooden cross around his neck. And then there were his eyes. I'm sure you've all seen the commericals with the little children. Their eyes look lost and hopeless. I'm not trying to say anything bad about the commercials, but its nothing like that. When you're there, it's a whole new world.

You can't just turn the channel or leave the room.

You can't just feel bad and decide "Hey, this is a good time to get snacks."

No

It's nothing like it. Because when you're there, you can't turn away. You can't just leave. 

That's the moment I realized something. The speaker, the man who say the eyes of the Holocaust, got the same feeling I did. I'm not trying to say what happened in the Holocaust and what is happening in Africa is the same. But I'm not saying it's any better or worse. People are always saying, learn from the past. Don't let these mistakes happen again.

But when you change the channel when those sad, dying, and hopeless children pop up on the screen.

When you leave the room or feel bad and do nothing else. How is that any better then killing them yourself. I'm not saying it makes you a bad person for not doing anything, I'm just saying next time, before you change the channel.....

THINK.

Cause I've been there, I've seen it.

We can change the world. We're just taking it one step at a time.