Just who do we think we are?

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.