Clockwise Cat
Hungering for Justice
It’s disgusting and outrageous that Congress is cutting social programs. The budget “crisis” has NOTHING to do with everyday people and EVERYTHING to do with Wall St. and rapacious greed.
The cuts to hunger programs are particularly egregious.
If you’ve ever been hungry for just an hour, then multiply that feeling, and imagine what it would feel like to be hungry all day, everyday, with just a few morsels to gnaw at – if even that. That is what starvation is, and it’s unacceptable that ONE CHILD DIES EVERY FIVE SECONDS from it.
I have joined a fast started by former Congressman Tony Hall, now the leader of a hunger organization. The problem is, yesterday, the first day of the fast, I was unsuccessful. I pledged to skip one meal a day, but my hunger caused me to focus so much on food that I ended up eating three meals, plus a snack. It’s agonizing proof of how difficult hunger is to endure, and in a way, my failure taught me even more compassion toward those who are perpetually hungry.
My failure depressed me. The children in this picture have no choice but to go hungry, and here I had a choice and I lazily lapsed into the mindset of the complacently well-fed.
Today I am pledging to skip breakfast. In some ways, it’s the easiest meal to skip for me, and in other ways, it’s the hardest. It’s easy because I only eat a very small breakfast – a cereal bar or banana. But it’s difficult because I need my energy for teaching, and usually by 10am if I have not had food then I feel as though I might pass out.
We will see how long I last. No matter what, I feel a strong urge to stand in spiritual solidarity with people around the world who starve every day, and who, unlike me, do not know if they will ever eat again.
I already have a slight headache and am somewhat weak, since usually by now I have eaten my breakfast.
But I know that I can eat at noon.
When will the children in the picture eat their next meal?
Hungering for Justice
It’s disgusting and outrageous that Congress is cutting social programs. The budget “crisis” has NOTHING to do with everyday people and EVERYTHING to do with Wall St. and rapacious greed.
The cuts to hunger programs are particularly egregious.
If you’ve ever been hungry for just an hour, then multiply that feeling, and imagine what it would feel like to be hungry all day, everyday, with just a few morsels to gnaw at – if even that. That is what starvation is, and it’s unacceptable that ONE CHILD DIES EVERY FIVE SECONDS from it.
I have joined a fast started by former Congressman Tony Hall, now the leader of a hunger organization. The problem is, yesterday, the first day of the fast, I was unsuccessful. I pledged to skip one meal a day, but my hunger caused me to focus so much on food that I ended up eating three meals, plus a snack. It’s agonizing proof of how difficult hunger is to endure, and in a way, my failure taught me even more compassion toward those who are perpetually hungry.
My failure depressed me. The children in this picture have no choice but to go hungry, and here I had a choice and I lazily lapsed into the mindset of the complacently well-fed.
Today I am pledging to skip breakfast. In some ways, it’s the easiest meal to skip for me, and in other ways, it’s the hardest. It’s easy because I only eat a very small breakfast – a cereal bar or banana. But it’s difficult because I need my energy for teaching, and usually by 10am if I have not had food then I feel as though I might pass out.
We will see how long I last. No matter what, I feel a strong urge to stand in spiritual solidarity with people around the world who starve every day, and who, unlike me, do not know if they will ever eat again.
I already have a slight headache and am somewhat weak, since usually by now I have eaten my breakfast.
But I know that I can eat at noon.
When will the children in the picture eat their next meal?