Good for you. That sounds like a great service, and exactly the type of thing I was asking about.
My investment is a bit more. Based on a path that began volunteering to provide medical services to local migrant workers I saw a bigger need. A decade ago I put my life here on hold and moved to Central America for a year. I worked with a non-profit that was primarily providing medical and public health resources to Nicaraguan populations where resources and access were very limited. This also included working with Nicaraguan settlements in Costa Rica where those that had become Costa Rican citizens would still have difficulty receiving the basic medical care to which they were entitled through the socialized medical system. I would come to find out that sometimes they would not be given appropriate therapy for very basic and treatable medical issues because the local Costa Rican doctors didn’t think they were smart or reliable enough to follow directions. That is a level of prejudice many of us do not witness very often in this country. In addition to directly treating patients, we also helped provide education and resources to improve the quality/safety of their drinking water and other measures like building chimneys for their wood-burning stoves. The smoke in the home causes chronic lung and eye issues.
This led to (volunteer) leadership roles with 2 additional international non-profits in Central America. In the decade since, I have continued this commitment returning to volunteer 10-30 days every year in these underserved communities in Central America. None of this is very glamorous and typically involves very humble living conditions. It has been quite a rewarding experience and I have gotten a lot more out of it than I could ever put in. I look forward to raising my kids with the opportunity to spend parts of their childhoods in these communities to help shape their world view and appreciation for other cultures (and hopefully plant a seed of service in them). So, I am not who you would like to frame me as being. My life and actions tell quite a different story. An intolerant person whose decisions are driven by their prejudice doesn’t offer up as much as I have to live and work within another culture like I have. He would not value the immersion in another culture like I have. And I have given more than time and labor. Financially, I am well in to 6 figures. Other than my honeymoon, I haven’t taken a vacation in a several years so that I can dedicate my time away from my paying job to these projects. We have made dramatic impacts on local communities and a couple orphanages. We have even built a fully functional hospital run by local doctors and nurses, where before there was only a small outpost for a rotating doctor to come every couple weeks.
So, to have a little twit like you, whose actions are so quiet relative to his verbal accusations and arrogance, say that my prejudice is “the problem” is laughable.
Don’t be too down on yourself. We do need loud voices making it clear that it is no longer acceptable in our society to discriminate against or marginalize people for the color of their skin, their gender or even their sexual orientation. But let’s be clear, that is what your primary contribution is….talk.
If you weren’t so quick to expect your ethical supremacy over everyone else you might notice a lot more people doing good things. It might even open up opportunities for you to join in and get off your ass more than one day every other year. So, yes, I will keep “doing me”. At least doing me is actually DOING something. Based on our tangible accomplishments, I think it is working out fantastic. You keep talking and convincing yourself the rest of us are the problem.
