Who Needs My Help?

I am impressed and not impressed by all the aid workers rushing around Nicaragua. Firstly, it is always impressive that anyone will take the time to come to a struggling country and live in rough conditions and build a school or a playground or a clinic for those who need such aid. I have, of course, been a part of such projects.

At the same time several things distress me about the situation. I speak with people every day while I have my coffee in town. I ask questions about their projects. I am amazed at how ignorant most of the young workers are about the history of this country and about the history of the role of the USA in this ongoing disaster. I am also amazed at the ignorance or balls it must take for a 16 year old to come to a strange country and tell people they won't be "saved" unless they give up the awful Catholic Church and become a Mormon, or a Jehovah Witness, or a Jerry Falwell, or a Seventh Day Adventist, or churches and congregations I don't even recognize. And, we'll build you a clinic or give you food if you come to our Sunday Service.

AND, the second greatest message after "Jesus Saves" is that only extreme right wing politicians are righteous. The ministers of non-profit churches in the USA are preaching politics and connecting it all up with heaven. We do pretend sometimes to have separation of church and state.

So what is new? I don't know. I think of all the Christian Missionaries in Africa, in China. I remember the Catholic Crusaders, the Conquest of the New World. Nothing new, I guess. It just strikes me as kind of pathetic and using the situation here to feel good about ourselves. I mean, we supported the rape and pillage of this country and then more and more rape and pillage. Now we have the next best solution, let us come here, from our own good will and teach you how to farm (HUH!) and how to conserve nature (HUH!) and so on. We are doing so very well in our country, we'll demonstrate to you poor ignorant people how to live by our high moral standards.

Someday I will jot down notes as I have one of these illuminating conversations. A lot can be revealed in a short conversation.

Now that I've mad my rant, what would I like to see going on? I think I always end up in the same impossible place. I would like to see us fix ourselves before we claim the right and the wisdom to fix other countries. I like the idea of us building everyone in the USA a house or a clinic or a better school. I like leaving converting  separate from  aid. I like the idea of our Native Peoples becoming the shining example of how an oppressed culture can rise again. I like the idea of getting to the roots of poverty and getting rid of the roots. I like the idea of this being independent of government ideals and religious dependencies and  our impulse being to create that wich we could then proudly take to other countries.

That would be so cool. At the same time I guess I think it all has to start somewhere. My generation has a few people still kicking. Do we have anything to offer? I am not sure. We have created this mess. We have created the pollution, the global warming, the financial disaster, the winner take all world. Sometimes I think we must have a lot of valuable skills that might be of use. Other times I think we have to start learning from wiser people. One thing I can encourage in everyone is to start learning our history and the history of at least one other country. It is fun and exciting and it helps one understand the big and small plays that are being made that really do affect all our lives.

Make it even simpler, learn the history of one part of our country, and one tiny little other country,  (El Salvador, Haiti) It is a cool exercise.