Some folks think that child labor is the greatest evil we face. We don’t want kids making our clothes or farming our chocolate.
Child labor makes headlines; hunger doesn’t.
AllAfrica reports that students in rural Zimbabwe are dropping out of school because they don’t have enough to eat and need to work to earn money to buy food. Young boys are leaving school to work in illegal gold mines.
When you live in a region where 25% of deaths of children under the age of five are related to nutritional deficiencies, food is more important than school.
Before we take a stand against child labor, we need to take a stand against extreme poverty. …
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The soft face of the child ducks for cover as a tank fires and missiles launch. You can almost see the innocence leaving his eyes for good and fear taking its place. Awful.
But this is happening and this is always happening somewhere in the world.
Watch this five minute video and think of what it must be like to grab all that’s important and keep walking until the fear of death is far behind.
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Paying Cash for Kids
“Hi, my name is Kelsey Timmerman. How much does it cost to have a kid at your hospital? I’ll pay cash. ”
This is the state of the American medical system today. Patients are forced to approach the birth of a child like they would shopping for a used car. That’s exactly how it felt, and that’s exactly how an expecting mother described her similar experience shopping for hospitals recently to the New York Times:
“I feel like I’m in a used-car lot.”
Like the woman featured in the story, we had insurance, just not insurance that covered maternity expenses. Of course, we didn’t realize that we didn’t have maternity coverage until after my wife Annie was pregnant with our second child.
We had different insurance for the birth…
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In the age of social media, many of us feel like we need to publicly address disasters and tragedies, as if we’re the President and PR department wrapped into one online presence. I don’t normally address such tragedies unless I have some connection to it or something to add, which I do, regarding the tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma…
The tornado was expected. Maybe not the day or the location, but everyone knew it was coming, and that more will come.
I drove right through Moore last month on my way to speak at the University of Oklahoma in Norman (10 miles south of Moore). There are three things that folks love in the area: the Oklahoma Sooners, The Thunder (the NBA basketball team), and watching the weather. …
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The last five years I’ve been making a real effort to become more civically engaged. As I’ve said before, once you become a parent you have less time to change the world, but more of a reason. So last night, after Annie and I watched Grey’s Anatomy on our DVR, I switched over to catch the middle of Senator Rubio’s rebuttal to President Obama’s State of the Union. (Don’t worry I DVRed the SOTU and will watch it later or just read it. All the politics without the applause and awkward facial expressions of the VP and Speaker of the House.)
That’s when I saw this.
Annie was asleep and I had to wake her up. I was rolling with…
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In 2001, I attended a service at the Vatican hosted by Pope John Paul II. (Every Tuesday he was at the Vatican, he conducted a service open to a general audience.) The thing I remember most is just how feeble the man was, how much effort every word and step took, and because of that effort how much more each one inspired the crowd. Despite the pain, the Pope didn’t quit. He never did.
He was shot and didn’t quit. Instead he visited his attempted assassin in prison. In 2001, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease and suffered from severe osteoarthritis. He didn’t quit. He “poped” for another four years.
This is what puzzles me about Pope Benedict saying that his strength “has deteriorated…to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me.”
A Pope hasn’t retired in 600 years. There’s more to this story than the Catholic Church is telling the public.
Somewhere Dan Brown is writing a future bestseller involving the Pope’s Butler stealing documents and the Pope resigning less than a year later.
In honor of the Pope hanging up his mitre, I dusted off this piece I wrote in 2005 about seeing Pope John Paull II in person.
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From the New York Times:
The Boy Scouts said in a statement e-mailed to reporters that it had received “an outpouring of feedback from the American public” over the proposed change.
“It reinforces how deeply people care about scouting and how passionate they are about the organization,” the statement said. “After careful consideration and extensive dialogue within the scouting family, along with comments from those outside the organization, the volunteer officers of the Boy Scouts of America’s National Executive Board concluded that due to the complexity of this issue, the organization needs time for a more deliberate review.”
Dithering is not leadership either.
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When the Boy Scouts of America doubled down on their policies to discriminate against gay scouts and leaders, I announced I was going to turn in my Eagle Scout awards.
The decision wasn’t made lightly. Scouts helped give me the confidence and independence to travel around the world alone as an author and journalist gathering stories. But Scouts also gave me the moral compass to stand up and act against injustice.
I promised my former troop leader that I would call Boy Scouts Of America’s national office to talk with them about how they reached their decision before I made my final decision to mail my awards.
That call went something like this:
“My name is Kelsey Timmerman. I’m an Eagle Scout. I…
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Photo by Daniel M. Reck
John S. Nettleton, a fellow Eagle Scout, wanted me to share his letter. After I sent my Eagle award back and I was interviewed on Talk of the Nation, I’ve heard from many Eagle Scouts who have done the same thing.
I’m proud to be a former Eagle Scout with John and so many others who are standing for what is right.
Wayne Brock, Chief Scout Executive
The National Boy Scouts of America
1325 W. Walnut Hill Lane
Irving, Texas 75015-2079
Dear Mr. Brock:
My congratulations on your appointment as BSA Chief Executive of the BSA; I trust your tenure will be productive and fulfilling. It is with regret…
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So today is the day I’m mailing off my Eagle Scout awards to the Miami Valley Council of Boy Scout of America and the National Office. For the past few days I’ve been reminiscing about my Scout experience. I even found my Eagle application. The first paragraph includes this:
What I will major in is unknown to me at this time. I feel that I am about to reach a major crossroads in my life, and the fact that I do not know what my field of study will be is weighing on me. I enjoy writing. Science intrigues me. Business is always a possibility. I know I will find that place where I belong, my niche in life.
“I enjoy writing.” I was closer than I…
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