sunday's new york times featured a really important, no, a life or death editorial. too often, the editorial page is mere ranting and insult trading, and sometimes rises to the thoughtful and inspiring. rarely has ink been split on this page, or the page of any newspaper, for as compelling an argument.
that argument is this, quoting the last paragraph:
"One hundred years ago, before we had the medical know-how to eradicate these illnesses, this might have been acceptable. But we are the first generation able to afford to end poverty and the diseases it spawns. It's past time we step up to the plate. We are all responsible for choosing to view the tsunami victims in Southeast Asia as more deserving of our help than the malaria victims in Africa. Jeffrey Sachs, the economist who heads the United Nations' Millennium Development Project to end global poverty, rightly takes issue with the press in his book "The End of Poverty": "Every morning," Mr. Sachs writes, "our newspapers could report, 'More than 20,000 people perished yesterday of extreme poverty.' "
So, on this page, we'd like to make a first step.
Yesterday, more than 20,000 people perished of extreme poverty."
And here is the book (due out in April from Penguin) we all need to "read, ponder, and inwardly digest" as martin luther was fond of saying, so that its argument moves us, individually and as a nation of unparelleled weath, to stand up and say, "thousands shall not die daily for preventable causes when we can prevent it."
(click for larger view)
a movement is growing that may have a chance--a real chance--to end poverty that literally crushes thousands daily.
anon, and +peace
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