I Am Only One Person

Reading, listening, seeing daily reports of injustice that range from child slavery on cocoa plantations to children sold to pedophiles or kidnapped from villages to be trained as soldiers. . . swirls around in my head and my heart and I cannot see a means of stopping any of it! I am only one person! How can I do SOMETHING that will make a difference? How can I change my world? Change me?

Oh, you want me to change me first? That’s not very easy. I’m pretty satisfied with my life. I’m not rich or anything, but my closet is full of “business casual” attire and I can go out to eat once or twice a month and even drive through the local stylized caffeine purveyor’s establishment occasionally and order a personalized latte. But even if I quit drinking latte’s for a year the amount I could send to adopt children wouldn’t pay for even one student’s schooling. I have to find a change that isn’t an interruption but, instead, it’s an adjustment that sets a new course.

I live in a commercial culture so whatever I do has to be culturally competent which means that if I want others to join me, it has to fit their lifestyle. Seriously, some people will not give up caffeine or chocolate for any great cause. HOWEVER, they will make adjustments and choose chocolate or caffeine that has been delivered to them without the use of slave labor. Of course, that means that they have to pay more because a worker somewhere in the supply chain is NOT a zero in the expense ledger.

It’s pretty easy to teach a child this principle. Say six year old Mary gets $10 a month in spending money. If she were to use all of it to buy chocolate bars she might be able to find cheap chocolate and purchase 15 candy bars. But if she chooses to vote against child slavery on cocoa plantations, she can vote at the cash register. She can find slave free chocolate, but it costs more because the labor involved in producing it is NOT a zero in the expense column.

So, now she only gets to buy 5 chocolate bars with her $10 of monthly spending money. Less for me is more for someone else. If I make that choice and you make that choice and you convince your friend to make that choice and I convince my friend to make that choice. . . well, we have found a culturally relevant way to make a difference. We can vote at the cash register in America and it will change lives in Africa! I am only one person. I can do this one thing.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 11th, 2010 at 6:45 pm. It is filed under Choose. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.