FROM “MAIN STREET AMERICA” TO “MAIN STREET AFRICA, IRAQ, SUDAN…”

My heart is heavy as I type this morning. Whether you are a news fanatic or just a channel browser, I would be willing to bet that we all have heard more regarding the economic CRISIS than we care to hear. Is this an opportunity for Wall Street or Washington scare tactics, or could we really be staring in the face of “uncomfortable-ness”? Could we actually be stepping back into a time that most of our grandparents and some of our parents remember? A time when hard work was more than calling in a pizza for supper or having to wait in line at Wal-Mart to buy groceries…a time when people saved before they bought…a time when people worked incredibly hard to have enough to survive, not to have a surplus…a time when people did not feel entitled, but thankful.

As I read the world news this morning on my lightning-fast internet, in my cushioned chair, with wonderful lighting and a comfortable temperature, my heart ached at the words that filled my mind and the recognition of the subconscious change that had taken place in my own “worldview”. I found myself reflecting on recent conversations that I had taken part in or simply overheard. Conversations regarding election polls, retirement plans, mortgage changes, credit crunches, gas and food prices, slow internet speeds, cable outages, rusty water…and the list could go on. While Americans and other non-third world countries are in an uproar and panic regarding TRILLIONS of dollars…while “we” have been outraged about gas and food prices…while “we” on MAIN STREET AMERICA or BRITAIN or CHINA are focused on how to “bailout so that we do not have a fallout”, there are those on MAIN STREET AFRICA, IRAQ, SUDAN, etc that know very little in regards to the issues that have recently monopolized our daily news. They have little knowledge of sub-prime mortgages, bank bailouts, rescue plans, or rising oil prices. Most do not own a home and will probably never even have the opportunity to do so, earn less than $1 a day for their family, have no concept of “retirement”, and are more focused on eating in order to survive instead of eating for pleasure.

In fact, MAIN STREET ETHIOPIA, at this very moment, has 6.4 million people that are facing a famine such as that in 1984 when over a million people died from starvation. And I ask you, “Who is bailing them out?” Or how about MAIN STREET DARFUR and the 200,000 that have been killed and 2.5 million that have been homeless since 2003 due to the war? And I ask you, “Who is bailing them out?” Or MAIN STREET IRAQ and the 8300 Christians that have been desperately running for their lives for over 5 years? Or the thousands of Kurdish people living in mud-pasted huts under the bleachers of a soccer stadium where they pleaded with the government to provide two hours of running water every two weeks? Why aren’t they screaming about entitlement? For even more perspective, our $700 billion dollar bailout could eradicate world poverty for over 2 years and clear the accumulated debt (twice) of 49 of the poorest nations. Yet, where is our focus?

Guilt-ridden, I find myself putting life in perspective again. How tainted our worldview can be! Is it due to the fact that I had the privilege of being born in a self-sufficient, non-third world country where, for the majority of citizens, we cannot truly comprehend poverty as those in less prosperous countries face on a daily basis with no end or hope for a better way of life? Is it that privilege that has instilled in us that we are ENTITLED to electricity, cable, internet, clean water, vehicles, homes, retirement plans, and an abundance of food that we can have someone else grow, clean, package, or cook for us? Why are WE entitled to those items when millions of people around the world aren’t? Are we “set apart”? Are we more “worthy”? Isn’t that what we are implying when we will spend TRILLIONS to bailout our own problems, then complain that it is taking too long or adversely affecting our lifestyles, and yet overlook the atrocities they face on a daily basis?

I am overwhelmed by one persistent thought this morning… “When faced with an inconvenience or an opportunity where I would normally complain due to a subconscious feeling of entitlement, remember MAIN STREET…not MAIN STREET AMERICA…BUT MAIN STREET “REALITY”…and simply be thankful.”