I’m a lucky guy. I happened to be born in America, which has one of the best economies in the world. I have never seen any act of war, or even any major crime being committed. I do not fear for my life when I go to the movies or the bowling alley. In fact, I’ve never been in a real life-or-death situation, or even close. I have never been to a poor country or seen how devastation war can be
I am lucky that I can easily get a good education. My parents pay for me to go to a Jesuit high school instead of a public school. We have never had to worry about where our next meal is coming from. My greatest worry right now is where I should go to college. I have everything I could possibly need.
What did I do to deserve this? Nothing. This is the life I was born into, and I’ve never seen anything outside of this nearly-perfect world. I live in America because my parents live here, and I have money because my parents have money.
I am lucky, but many people are not. Millions of people would do anything to exchange lives with me. My dad tells me there are people in Haiti who eat mud-pies to quench their hunger even though they know that it gives them no nutrition whatsoever. Many people cannot afford to live, and they die of starvation or disease. Many nations have weak governments that do nothing to help the people, or at least fail in their efforts. In African nations like Uganda, children spend much of their days hiding because they are afraid that they will be attacked.
It is important to be humble, to remember that we are no different from people in other countries, on other continents. We are simply luckier, and we should use what we have to help people who are less fortunate. Kids in poor countries don’t worry about college, they worry about finding food and shelter. Many children have to work every day, on farms or at home in some other way. The truth is that Americans aren’t superior in any way to Haitians or Africans: They are simply luckier.
Even if you happen to be the smartest, richest man in the world and worked hard to earn that position, humility is important. There is no doubt that if you had been born into a poor family in war-torn Africa you would not be in the position you are now. Our success is based on luck; we only build upon that luck.
There is no reason to be proud or arrogant. We happen to have been born into a great country, but we are no better than anybody else. We should be just as upset about the people who died in the Israel-Lebanon war as we are about the deaths in the America-Iraq war. Americans care more about the cost of gasoline than the struggles of third-world countries. All people are equal, so why don’t we use everything we have to help the less fortunate?
I believe in humility because I think that all people are equal, whether it appears that way or not. Humility is the first step to solving the world’s biggest problems, starting with health. If we all realize that there is no such thing as a superior human being, we will feel compelled to help the unlucky people escape from the battle for survival.
