Hunger Action Month

Feeding America has declared September Hunger Action Month. It seeks to spur one million acts of kindness in addressing world hunger. It is an ambitious and worthwhile goal. It is not enough.

Marcia and I were privileged to travel to East Africa in early summer. In addition to amazing animals and spectacular vistas, we witnessed life in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya. There was poverty that we in the United States cannot imagine. Families of four live beneath cardboard roofs smaller than one stall of your garage. There is no plumbing. There is no refrigeration. There are no closets. There are no spare clothes. There is no privacy. There is no safety. There is squaller and disease.

There is also gritty determination in the face of devastating sadness. In a school established by AmericaShare, more than 100 bright Kenyan children from the slums receive education to help them escape poverty. An eleven-year-old girl, Dorcas, wants to be doctor. Another little boy, Isaac, tells me he wants to be an engineer. The children have access to computers and training on how to use them. The library is a beehive of activity. In well-lit, pleasant classrooms, there are rigorous lessons. Students and teachers alike appreciate that education is the portal to a better life.

But why this account of a foreign land and such unimaginable suffering leavened by hope? It is not to depress, but to inspire. People the world over share your desire to create a better life for others. We in Dane County are part of a network across the globe, teeming with people we shall never meet who share our resolve to do what we can to ease suffering, to feed the hungry, and to improve the lot of others. There is satisfaction, even pride, in joining that universal throng committed to doing something to lessen the world’s ills.

Is it enough? No. Will our efforts eradicate poverty? No. So, why, one might ask, defy insurmountable odds? A little boy walks the seashore at low tide, picking up starfish and tossing them back into the waves. A cynical old man observes: “There are so many, and you can’t save them all. What does it matter?” The little boy responds by picking up another starfish and gently tossing it to the safety of the foamy surf, “It mattered to that one.”

So it is that we do what we can where we are. In each corner of the world good people help each other as best they can. When I held public office, my first campaign manager liked to remind me, “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.” Solutions aren’t always final, or even complete. But that makes them no less vital. Theodore Roosevelt put it well in a time before gender equality, “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena. Whose face is marred by blood and sweat and tears. Who, if he succeeds, knows the thrill of high achievement. And if he fails, at least does so while daring greatly. So that his place will never be with those cold and timid souls that know neither victory nor defeat.”

Thank you for being part of the solution.

Bob