I am currently working towards a nursing degree. I’m still in the early stages, taking only a few classes per semester due to the lack of funds — I am putting my daughter through college after all. I will eventually get my degree and become a full fledged nurse, ready to work in a hospital or clinic. I would be able to make a good wage and bring much wealth into my home. I could give my daughter and grand daughters much more than I have been able to as a factory worker and especially as an unemployed part-time student. There is one thing, however, I believe I should give them that will not require me to work for a higher wage.
I don’t want to simply give them a bright future replete of wealth, happiness and all bounties of that sort. I want to be a part of something beyond that: I want to help give them a better world. Granted, I can not simply change the world at will and turn it into a beautiful scenery of green grass, clear rivers and a sunflower sun, just like in the movies, but I can try to make the world they live in at least a little bit better. I’ve watched plenty of those horrible commercials of impoverished people in downtrodden countries who have little food and drinking water. Everyone has seen their share of that. Most people don’t donate to those organizations though and, I hate to say it, I have never been in a safe position to do so either. I hope people don’t donate for the same reason. One thing that people do even less is help people like that directly. Those who go to these impoverished nations and help them build their communities, lives and future are few and far in between. I don’t want to be a part of the many who don’t. I want to be there, helping in any way I can. I want to be a doctor or nurse who goes to an impoverished country and help people in great need. I want to build a school in the Middle East. I want to be in Haiti, right now, mending broken bones and saving people’s lives even as I lose many who can not be saved. The broken heart I would suffer knowing I have failed in many instances would be worth suffering knowing I had helped someone, anyone, from dying and suffering the unknown beyond this life of misery they’ve been left to.
This world is filled with suffering, danger and hatred because we don’t have enough people going to these impoverished countries to help them build their lives. Capitalist desire strips the earth of the sustenance it provides these people and it leaves them behind to fend for what’s left. The people of Afghanistan have been embattled throughout millennia by invaders and dictators, despots and oppressors. Their country is a country with little education and rights for women and the people in general. At the same time, the country has a spark for education, even for women, that is hidden from the naked eyes of the rest of the country. They need medical help and education. If they had those things and felt safer — and safe from outside oppressors — their society would be a much better one. People from a better Afghanistan would be more resistant to extremism, making the world for my daughter and grand children safer, brighter, better — maybe even as bright as one with a sunflower sun, just like in the movies.
That’s what I want to do. My family, my progeny, deserves better than the smallest gesture I can do for them. Their world is not just a corner of it — this entire world is theirs. I wouldn’t want to leave the greatest gift I can give them in the worst shape it can possibly be. I want it to be beautiful, just like them.
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