(based from an article in BEACON, Volume XXVIII, #16, April 19, 1999, Pensacola, FL, author unknown)
Imagine, if you will, the following points. In so doing you will have some sense of what daily life is like for as many as a billion people around the world (that would be nearly 20 people for every 100 people):
–[1] Take out all the furniture in your home except for one table and a couple of chairs. Use blankets and pads for beds.
–[2] Take away all of your clothing except for your oldest dress or suit, shirt or blouse. Leave only one pair of shoes.
–[3] Empty the pantry and refrigerator except for a small bag of flour, some sugar and salt, a few potatoes, some onions, and a dish of dried beans.
–[4] Dismantle the bathrooms, shut off the running water, and remove all the electrical wiring in your house.
–[5] Take away the house itself and move the family into the tool shed.
–[6] Place your “house” in shanty town.
–[7] Cancel all subscriptions to newspapers, magazines, and book clubs. This is no great loss because none of you can read anyway.
–[8] Leave only one radio for the whole shanty town.
–[9] Throw away your bankbooks, stock certificates, pension plans, and insurance policies. Leave the family a cash hoard of ten dollars.
–[10] Move the nearest hospital or clinic ten miles away and put a midwife in charge instead of a doctor.
–[11] Give the head of the family a few acres to cultivate on which he can raise a few hundred dollars of cash crops, of which one third will go to the landlord and one tenth to the money lenders.
–[12] Lop off twenty-five or more years of life expectancy.
Those who live in the United States have a hard time realizing how well blessed they are to live in this country. Every young person should have the opportunity to visit some poor country for a week. And while visiting they should be made to live as the people in that country. I am sure this would change the selfish attitude that so many demonstrate today.
