�T he very fact that the Almighty father has placed a certain soul in our way is a sign that he wants us to do something for him or her. It is not chance; it has been planned by our Father. We are bound by conscience to help him or her." -- Mother Teresa

All too often in the midst of the busy, chaotic lives we have, we lose touch with our communities. The unacknowledged act itself is not something we can blame ourselves for. You see, we simply do not know� we do not know. We have all been in the position where the daily grind wears on us. Unfortunately, we are not the first to realize this. However, when we turn on the TV at night and here our local news or we walk out of the house on a daily basis to see the anguish on our own street corners, and we turn our heads from our community, that is our problem. We have been informed of what we don�t know about. It is a shame we are darting our eyes and trying to forget those out there that are struggling because it is much easier to look away than do something about it. If there is struggle in our neighborhoods, in our communities in our cities, regardless of who is involved, this is your struggle and your actions ( or lack there of) affect you greatly. Sadly, many of our Brothers and Sisters would much rather exalt a stereo-typical glorified cholo than exalt the Nation he/she claims they will die for. Below is a quote from Martin Niemoller, a Protestant Pastor and social activist. The text below came from what he said was the consciousness of his own guilt.

First they came for the Communists,
  and I didn�t speak up,
    because I wasn�t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
  and I didn�t speak up,
    because I wasn�t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
  and I didn�t speak up,
    because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
  and by that time there was no one
    left to speak up for me.

by Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1945

He became an active member of the World Peace Committee and was for seven years president of the World Council of Churches. He also published a book on his political views entitled One World or No World (1964) His experiences with the inhumanities of a distant World War II may seem trivial and lack importance. It was six decades ago, after all. While quite some time has passed since this particular time in history, genocide and its horrors still lurk in distant past. For instance, in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide were the rebels left some 1,000,000 corpses in their path of destruction. This "incident" as it has been called just shows the point that we have a habit of helping only when it�s valuable to us. Rwanda produces no major exports. No oil is in the entire nation. So why should the U.S. care? We should care because we are intelligent people who can realize that even 1,000 murders is an insane amount, and that 1,000,000 murders is not an "incident". It is a complete break down of humanity as we know of it.

We often act as if we only have to sustain a Tribe and we do not accept the fact that we responsibility for the whole Nation. It may be true that man can move mountains, but it takes a Nation to move the world. Brothers and Sisters, Kings and Queens, lets come together lock crowns and realize the magnitude of the opportunities we have. Together we are truly one beautiful brown force.

With love,
Esperanza

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