Letters to Society's Children - Issue #14
My dearest children of society,
I write to you all on the subject of poverty. For the vast majority of us in life, we have lived our entire lives under the tumultuous burdens of being poor. While this unites some of us, it unfortunately drives us even further apart as we struggle and fight one another in order to get a better plight in life. This supposed “rat race” has been constructed both by those who wish to keep us underneath their power and by many of our own hands as we work against each other. Some of us may ask, “What does poverty look like?” Nonetheless, this is only indicative of the fact that our current world values the worth of human soul based upon how much money they have or they can make someone else. Poverty is when a mother tells her children that there is no more food to eat. Poverty is when a child has to continue to go to school with holes in their shoe for months, perhaps even years, on end. Poverty bears the face of the starving and the downtrodden, the weary and the homeless.
Listen well, children of society: It is the duty of those who are blessed with more to share with those who are less fortunate. Each soul in this world is worth more than what gold and paper can say, and it’s about time we start acting like it. We’ve got to work together in order to help feed those who are hungry, bring homes to those who have none, and to quench the thirst of the parched. If those who have more share with those who have less, than the scales of our society will finally be balanced. Those who are wealthy must begin to bridge the gap between them and the poor by focusing on helping mend the wounds of society. Surely, even five of the world’s richest people can make more of a difference than every politician combined. Before that can even be attempted, we must close the gap that divides us and the system that places the masses under the heels of the elite. My children, we must strive to create a world where every person is worth far more than any currency we can come up with, where every soul can live without the fear of going hungry. If we can create weapons of mass destruction capable of erasing hundreds of thousands of people in the blink of an eye, surely we can work towards a world where everyone had a home. If our governments are capable of spending trillions of dollars on wars that devastate whole nations and destroy countless lives, then they should absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt, have the capacity to ensure that every human being will never go without water again.
Wanting to be rich is not the crime in question, my children. The sin itself is when one becomes rich and possesses the means of creating real change in the lives of those who so desperately need it, but chooses not to serve their own selfish agendas. While change may take time, it does start within. Inside each and every one of us is the strength to move mountains, despite what the wealthy and the elite constantly tell us. One person’s worth should not be measured on the amount of money they possess, but should be measured by what they contribute to the benefit of those around them, and indirectly, to the whole world. We must act now, dearest children of society! We mustn’t push each other down or aside in order to get a better plot in life, but instead lend a hand to those who need it. This life we live is surely a war indeed, but it was never meant to be fought alone. The issue of poverty may not be solved in one day, or one week, or one month, or one year. However, if we work together and press onward, no matter the obstacles before us, then there may be a day when not a single soul goes hungry again.
Kofi Annan, former Security-General of the UN and co-recipient of the Nobel Peace prize once said, “Extreme poverty anywhere is a threat to human security everywhere.”
Signed, Joshua Paul Villanueva.
