Who's Responsible?

"If we are to go on living together on this earth, we must all be responsible for it." -Kofi Annan

The big debate: Who is responsible for poverty? Who is responsible for providing safe drinking water in areas that don't have any? Who is responsible for decent working conditions? Who is responsible for giving food to those who have none? Who is responsible for taking care of the environment?

The answer: all of us. Liberals tend to expect the government to set regulations or outlaw certain practices. Conservatives want the government to stay out of it. Several times I have heard statistics of conservatives giving more money to charities, while more often I hear of liberals writing to government officials and/or staging protests. So what?

Does it matter how you go about working to make a more just world? I would argue that two avenues are equally important. I recently sent out an email about writing to representatives about the Senator Paul Simon Water for the World Act of 2009, and one of the recipients replied with links to places through which you could donate to help get sanitary water to places in which water is scarce. Both ways of working for justice are vitally important.

Same is true for environmental concerns. We as individuals must be conscious of our energy uses and the things we buy. We must be aware of where our energy comes from and reduce consumption. We should buy local goods as much as possible. But the government may be necessary to regulate the companies who seek to make a profit at the cost of our environment. We bear the cost; they get the profit. As individuals, we can only do so much to stop this. But we must do what we can. Part of that includes asking our representatives to represent what is important to us. The other part that is just as important is to use our time and money to play our role, to buy fair trade products, to donate to organizations that work with those issues.

If you feel that much of this is the responsibility of the government, you can easily fall into the trap of expecting someone else to do it. But that is simply unacceptable. You too must do your part. If you always wait around expecting someone else to do something, nothing will ever get done. You must take charge. I must take charge.

It doesn't matter your political philosophy. What matters is that we come together to create a world in which children don't die from unsanitary drinking water, in which people can work hard and earn a livable wage, in which we don't need all the biggest and best for the cheapest prices at the expense of those who can hardly afford to feed their families (if they can). Are we ready to rise up and put an end to poverty?