Estrella

Teaching versus Charity As the saying goes, “ Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” (Maimonides). Anyone who takes a poverty 101 class will realize the two different types of poverty: circumstantial/crisis-related poverty and chronic poverty. The former poverty is the condition caused by a sudden change in living either due to a natural disaster, job loss, medical health problems or something of the like. The latter is usually of the condition that one is born into or acquires throughout the generations because that family never either had the opportunity or capacity to gain upward mobility in class economics. It’s a shock to live in a country where 25% of American children skip one meal of the day. However, the immediate needs as well as the chronic needs are just as important to be fixed in this day. Sometimes giving a meal for several times is all that it takes. But when that reception turns int...

 "In some respects, life is like a soccer game. It seems like you play hard during the entire game and never really score any goals. But no else does either, so you don't feel too bad. You get kicked and bruised and knocked down, and you quickly get back up and into the game and avoid getting penalties as best you can with the exception of the normal kinds of mistakes that are part of the game and then the entire game is over and it's ultimately decided by the flick of a hand in the goal. A mere deflection - one defining moment, and everybody says, "That's the game." And you've played so hard for so long, and it came down to one defining moment in your life. Throughout the game, if you were like me, your emotions were rocketed from one extreme to another, from disappointment to exhilaration, from anger at what you thought was unfair and maybe unsportsmans-like conduct on the part of the other team, and then admiration of another play t...

In this time in this country, we have seen an uptick in loneliness, depression and youth delinquency that have been unprecedented. What can be done to battle such upheavals in Ferguson, Boston during the Boston Marathon, school shootings in Connecticut and other shootings elsewhere? Is America to only decay into a violent society where it picks itself apart to the soundtrack and script of a Chris Nolan film? I believe that we have the power as Americans and residents in this country to resolve these issues and reclaim the former power, unity and peace of this spirited nation. With God as our guide, we have the power to reclaim the village. The Village versus Community Some may ask why I use the term “village” rather than “community”. They are both similar terms, but one has a deeper responsibility to a brother’s keeper than the other while the former term “village” carries with it some of the connotations of shunning, exile, social exclusion and moral puni...