“Love is not patronizing and charity isn’t about pity, it is about love. Charity and love are the same — with charity you give love, so don’t just give money but reach out your hand instead.”
Mother Teresa
Our world is full of tragedy. The blessing of wealth means that we also have the fortune to help those who are less fortunate. We can through compassionate means support those who have bore tragedy themselves. Beside the investment of such a practice for practical diplomacy, it is a decent thing to do to care for those who are in need. Whether you are religious in nature or not, to deprive basic aid when you are capable of providing it is to become an accomplice to the tragedy.
When we ignore our brother’s and sister’s cries for help we become complicit to their plight. Obviously we can not help every situation. And those decisions will have to be carefully weighed as to what situations can be helped and in what way. How can we reach out our hands as Americans to help our global brother’s and sisters?
My policy on foreign aid, is that if we can help people we should do it. Help should be direct and purpose driven. Aid should not simply solve today’s crisis, but improve stability moving forward. Aid should seek to provide the tools to move forward out of tragedy and less dependent on our government for more aid.