I am a person who likes to give. I confuse friends sometimes by just leaving presents on their doorsteps for no reason except I want to. But today I was the one who received a gift and I want to share it with everybody. Below is a paper submitted to me this week by one of my students in response to a TED talk they had watched. His response is one of the greatest gift I have ever received. A piece of his open heart.............
I hope he doesn't mind, my sharing this excerpt:
"Poverty is also a person's self-worth. An old Biblical phrase is "a man cannot live on bread alone." This is true in modern times as well. There are solutions to temporal poverty that most of us are comfortable in discussing. As a Marine going through an enemy saturated territory in Afghanistan, I was personally introduced to this kind of poverty. I was unable to act due to my orders of not aiding the enemy, but along an old dried river bed as we rumbled along in our truck, much larger vehicles than anything else in the country, we passed three young boys. I am not an expert, but I would estimate their ages between eleven and twelve. Cries of "mister, mister...food, food" echoed as their distended bellies and emaciated eyes were all I could focus on. Clearly these children have not eaten in a very long time. I remember thinking to myself, what could have caused this famine? I realized almost instantly it was me. I created this famine, me and people like me.
As our patrols rolled on for weeks, sometimes months, there was not real action to speak of. By action I mean, bombs going off, gun fights, or anything like that. A lot of the Marines that were with thought of these patrols as useless and boring. I was just happy to be away from the base and all the senior enlisted men and the officers. Out here on the road, I was in charge. Yes, I had a lieutenant who was clearly by superior but he always got my input before making any decisions. One day the guys got their wish. A large improvised explosive device went off and destroyed our lead vehicle. Things had been so boring leading up to that point I guess it took everyone off guard. My truck pulled forward to provide security while we evacuated the demolished vehicle. I had my fifty caliber machine gun trained down the same river bed I mentioned earlier and saw the three boys again. They were caught in the blast from a secondary explosion of a much larger bomb than the first. This bomb also sent the man front-laying our position spinning through the air like a doll thrown from a child's hand. At the the time I did not what to do so I just started yelling for the children to which there was no reply. Shortly the entire town we were passing began to surge to the edge of their mud hut buildings. I was terrified. Yes I could squeeze the trigger if I had to, but after watching those children I almost fell to a kind of "you asked for this one attitude". The town's elders simply came out and gathered up all the body parts of the children and the bomb maker. I was upset because I truly believed that was my time to go.
People who say they have witnessed poverty, or every day violence, make me want to tell them about my story. I have been told a million times in the past several years that I am a hero and served my country with honor. I do not believe that to be true at all all. I may have served my country honorable but my responsibility is to more that just my country. It is to humanity. What I mean to say is, do what needs to be done immediately but don't blindly believe your actions to be infallible. All people in this world carry a stain of blood. It takes a brave and self-reflective person to admit it and try to do something about it."
My a gift to know that somehow a simple class assignment lead to such thought and well expressed insight. Damn every once and a while I stumble up and do inspire a bit of the best..........................
I hope he doesn't mind, my sharing this excerpt:
"Poverty is also a person's self-worth. An old Biblical phrase is "a man cannot live on bread alone." This is true in modern times as well. There are solutions to temporal poverty that most of us are comfortable in discussing. As a Marine going through an enemy saturated territory in Afghanistan, I was personally introduced to this kind of poverty. I was unable to act due to my orders of not aiding the enemy, but along an old dried river bed as we rumbled along in our truck, much larger vehicles than anything else in the country, we passed three young boys. I am not an expert, but I would estimate their ages between eleven and twelve. Cries of "mister, mister...food, food" echoed as their distended bellies and emaciated eyes were all I could focus on. Clearly these children have not eaten in a very long time. I remember thinking to myself, what could have caused this famine? I realized almost instantly it was me. I created this famine, me and people like me.
As our patrols rolled on for weeks, sometimes months, there was not real action to speak of. By action I mean, bombs going off, gun fights, or anything like that. A lot of the Marines that were with thought of these patrols as useless and boring. I was just happy to be away from the base and all the senior enlisted men and the officers. Out here on the road, I was in charge. Yes, I had a lieutenant who was clearly by superior but he always got my input before making any decisions. One day the guys got their wish. A large improvised explosive device went off and destroyed our lead vehicle. Things had been so boring leading up to that point I guess it took everyone off guard. My truck pulled forward to provide security while we evacuated the demolished vehicle. I had my fifty caliber machine gun trained down the same river bed I mentioned earlier and saw the three boys again. They were caught in the blast from a secondary explosion of a much larger bomb than the first. This bomb also sent the man front-laying our position spinning through the air like a doll thrown from a child's hand. At the the time I did not what to do so I just started yelling for the children to which there was no reply. Shortly the entire town we were passing began to surge to the edge of their mud hut buildings. I was terrified. Yes I could squeeze the trigger if I had to, but after watching those children I almost fell to a kind of "you asked for this one attitude". The town's elders simply came out and gathered up all the body parts of the children and the bomb maker. I was upset because I truly believed that was my time to go.
People who say they have witnessed poverty, or every day violence, make me want to tell them about my story. I have been told a million times in the past several years that I am a hero and served my country with honor. I do not believe that to be true at all all. I may have served my country honorable but my responsibility is to more that just my country. It is to humanity. What I mean to say is, do what needs to be done immediately but don't blindly believe your actions to be infallible. All people in this world carry a stain of blood. It takes a brave and self-reflective person to admit it and try to do something about it."
My a gift to know that somehow a simple class assignment lead to such thought and well expressed insight. Damn every once and a while I stumble up and do inspire a bit of the best..........................