In the news today are stories dealing with slavery and
health. Millions of people worldwide are affected while here in the United
States we go about our business as if none of this happens. Our daily
conversation is about tv shows, beach reading, and Caitlyn Jenner. We’re
concerned about our children’s self-esteem, an odd array of issues that might
have some negative impact upon the highly controlled comfort of our daily
existence.
Today, however, it is big news that a new treatment for
malaria will finally be available. This new vaccine has been in development for
30 years and will have a relatively small effect on the containment of the disease.
But, we lose a half a million lives to
malaria each year. Those are lives just as important as our own, just as valuable as our own, just as significant as our own – but not as
privileged as our own. Most of those lives are lost in Africa, most are not
important consumers of the goods and services that enrich the better educated,
wealthier, and luckier societies on this planet.
At the same time, we continue to struggle with other quite
dramatic issues of inequality. Human trafficking is another topic that is
reported on daily. It’s a $9 billion a year industry with about 27 million
living in slavery around the world today. It’s a hundred and fifty years since
slavery was legally outlawed in this country, but we haven’t figured out how to
totally resolve issues of racial prejudice.
Our so-called advanced civilization is capable of all sorts
of creative and imaginative endeavors. We have space travel, ubiquitous digital
technology, fine arts, literacy and health standards (sort of) and many other
measures to make ourselves feel good about ourselves. We have God on our side
to justify our opinions and outlook. But, we cannot find a way to live in a way
that respects our fellow human beings.
Our luck in having been born in the right place, in the
right family, with the right opportunities, and the right privilege does not
give us the right to ignore and disdain those who find themselves trapped by
geography and political history.
