You can't change the world...but you can make a dent in it

          Lately I've been a pretty bitter person with so much evil going on in the world. Statistics says that violence has been declining for the last century but with the media it's put under much more of a spotlight. Americans throw away about 164 billion dollars, give or take a few, worth of food every where but to eradicate hunger it would take tens of billions less than that (I posted the stats on that a couple years ago but I can't remember the exact figure). In America the rich are getting richer while the middle class is slowly becoming the new poverty as almost half of all Americans have less than 10,000 in savings and the top .1% have about 90% of the wealth. Gangs are a huge problem in America as there are killings every day. Many countries have a lack of labour laws and many Americans are content with that as long as they don't have to hear about it or see it. It would take days to go down the list of all the injustices going on in the world and it really sucks. The 5 Walton kids of Walmart are worth 16 BILLION dollars EACH and yet the majority of their workers are on some sort of government aid. I can't help but wonder how much good could I do with that kind of money. I can't help but be so upset with those who make so much, and keep so much, and give just enough to look charitable. How can I do anything making less than 20k a year?
         
          Now we, as every day Americans, live a much better life than the majority than the rest of the world as far as having a roof over our heads and food to fill our stomachs, but there's still so many problems here, and so many problems in the rest of the world that I feel like many of us are ignorant, or choose to be ignorant, to. Being aware of all these things going on in the world, it's hard to know that I can't do anything to fix a lot of the problems that billions of people go through, I don't even know where to start. And I have always vowed that the more money I make, the more I will use it to try to make a difference.

          But then you hear quotes like these:
"You can't change the world, but you can make a dent in it"
"You can't help everybody, but everybody can help somebody"
"No one has ever become poor by giving" Anne Frank
"If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one" Mother Theresa
"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give" Winston Churchill?

          I cannot claim to be the most charitable person and it's likely I never will be, be kind of hard to beat Mother Theresa and Ghandi on that one, but I can at least do something. Back in 2010 when I started working overnight at Walmart, I started reading a book by Francis Chan called Crazy Love which challenged me so much. I made the decision at the time to sponsor a child through Compassion organization and that has been an awesome journey as I've gotten to know a kid in Ethiopia name Abenezer, and I'm able to make a difference in his life. I may not be able to feed and save hundreds right now, but I'm making a difference I hope. Now there's still so much more I can do, and I'm being more and more aware of what companies to buy from, or what charities to avoid, I had signed up for Feed My Starving Children but have yet to actually go in; but from this point on I will make more efforts. I will do my best to stop supporting greed and companies that aren't true to their mission statement. Of course no one is perfect and I know I can't be, and I know no one else can be, but as they say, it's the effort that counts.

          I can be quite the cynical person by nature, I don't feel like I show love very well outwardly, but I really do care and I really want to do things to change the world. And mostly I want to see everyone do their part. I want to see the violence stop, the hatred towards one another stop,  the stupid fighting over political parties (of politicians who couldn't care less about us no less), the ignorance of what's going on because many just don't want to know about it. It really sucks to see all these people who care more about what Kim Kardashian is doing, about what sport team is winning, those who love to rip and bully those who support another political party, or believe in a different religion, anything at all that continues to drive all of us apart. None of us are perfect, but it's about time we all realize that about ourselves, and instead focus on what we can do to help others get out of their holes knowing that we are not any better than anyone else.

          Now I titled this "you can't change the world, but you can make a dent in it" because I just want to encourage everyone to find a cause, not a political cause, that they are willing to put effort towards to make a difference. I realize that I can't help all the starving children in the world, I can't sponsor every child, I can't donate millions to defeating hunger and poverty, I don't run a company to take care of employees, I can't support every single good charity all at once. But that's okay, it's perfectly okay, and I shouldn't feel guilty that I can't. All I can do is continue to sponsor Abenezer, give what money I can to help those less fortunate, go to Feed My Starving Children for a day or two or three a month, make sandwiches and give socks to homeless next time I go to Chicago like I did with some people in the past. It's the little things that matters right? If everyone can support a cause, any cause at all, we can all collectively make a difference. Not everyone needs to support the same charities I do, that way all the other charities are forgotten about. I encourage everyone to find something they feel strongly about and do what you can about it. There's so many little things all of us can do.

Not everyone can be Bruce Wayne, but we can all be someone. Maybe someday I can learn to not be so cynical and bitter about the greed and heartlessness in the world. But I can't imagine having that attitude is influencing anyone to want to help others. It's something I need to work on. I've been holding a lot of these feelings in for a while now and I just wanted to get it out. I know there's so many friends I have already who are so generous and loving and make huge differences in many lives, but I know we all can do even more. I hope someday I can make an even bigger difference. Let's make this world a better place together.