caveat: I am in no way selling short what you all do. I'm sure that most of you are contributing to the world in a significant way. It's my point that even the most active, civc-minded people to include even Mother Theresa could only affect so much. I just know that there are those who range from very cynical to the other extreme where they're unable to sleep at night, although they've devoted their lives to others, simply because no matter how many thousands you've helped there are eleventy bazillion others who still need help.



Personally, when I was a kid, the UNICEF commercials used to make me think quite a lot. I used to think about what I could do that would ensure that those little babies were healthy and lived a full life like I knew I probably would. If I sent them a dollar a month, with the belief that millions of other people were sending a dollar a month; wouldn't that make a dent? Uh, no.

I used to think about why they were in the shape they were in. Was it because their parents were doomed to not be able to provide the basic necessities to their children. Not only were they in an undeveloped country with not a lot of opportunity, but there was little opportunity for schooling to make themselves better and just as importantly, not a lot of examples of 'success' that they could envy and resolve to 'be like the Joneses' by hard work and innovation. So, of course the children are the ones who suffer.

Then I thought about the effects of my dollar a month, along with the other money donated by the others. It would seem that might feed a lone city in a specific part of the world; but what about the rest of the world? There are a lot of donations and a lot of aid our and many other governments are giving but obviously there's still quite a lot of suffering going on. What is it, then, that I could do to feed the world?

Could I focus on influencing the rest of the 'first world' to donate more? More money, more food, more folks who are willing to actually go to these third world countries and spread their education by teaching folks how to build shelter, how to farm, how to be more sanitary? Eh, doubtful.

As I got older, I started to learn of the different forms of oppression. I learned that there were countries where the government or the military or someone was an obstacle to resources getting to those who really needed them. As an example, the warlords in Ethiopia who sent their forces to the C.A.R.E. distribution points in order to make sure that the poor children didn't get the basics that the volunteers were trying to distribute.

Well, that's just messed up. Why would they do something as heartless as that? Well, the only conclusion I came up with is that that is their form of oppression. If you keep the people hungry and needy, then there's a form of justification for your existance. They need you. If you can just give them enough to keep them alive, then it doesn't cost as much to you and you ensure that you have subjects to rule over. When some meddling country or organization comes in giving out such luxuries like rice and medical car, and teaches the people such frivolous skills like how to grow your own food, then that screws up the entire plan.

How do you sleep at night, knowing of all of the suffering and tortured existances many folks are feeling across the globe?

So, to answer my question. I joined the Army. It's not a universal salve in that I know that being a soldier isn't going ot solver the world's problems, but I know that when hot spots ignite in some armpit of the world, there's a great potential that I may get sent to remove some ******** from power. To weaken or dissolve that guy's 'Army'. I believe that in many cases, there is a lot of aid money that is going into the wallet of the Hussein's and Milosevic's and Noriega's. There are a lot of volunteers who have gone to those countries with the explicit intent of spending time and effort to directly help the needy, by teaching them how to sustain themselves; who have found themselves in the heart of terror when some guerillas are dispatched to go and rough them up and drive them away.