Posted by Peter from Pennsylvania on: 04.20.2006 /
…and it’s been fun… but here’s my final blog entry for all of ya. I think this should be a fun one. (Unlike my last post… sorry about that one, I just really wanted to hear from folks on that…)
If you could do ANY one or two things to make the world a better place, what would they be. Forget about expense, time, or any kind of obstacle that might stand in your way… Imagine for a moment you have unlimited resources, help, and time.
Let those minds wander. Let’s hear your ideas.
Comment by: Ir
1This question isn’t easy because I can’t predict all the ramifications of what I might like to do. It could be that my idea for improving something would make something else worse in a way I hadn’t anticipated.
But anyway - in general I’d like to share out the world’s resources better…
Here are a couple of specific things that require supernatural abilities ;)
1) I would adjust the design of human beings a little so that a) desire to be a parent and b) absence of pathological inability to be one were inextricably linked to ‘ability to conceive’, so that people who didn’t want babies or were going to horribly abuse them never conceived and people who desperately want children would never have to deal with the heartache of infertility.
2) I would literally ‘put the fear of God’ in any Christian leaders who have caused significant hurt to my friends - with supernatural signs (written warnings in the sky, whatever :)) until they didn’t dare not apologize to my friends, for fear of what God would do if they didn’t.
I’m not much into the ‘wrath of God’ but I do think it could come in handy in certain situations…
Comment by: David S
2Luke 6:31
Do to others as you would have them do to you.
Comment by: Julie Marie
3Well, I’d settle for making my city a better place. In my role as a home health nurse, I entered the toughest projects in town, and drove down the most isolated country roads. I went alone, to places, as they say “angels fear to tread.” Places the cops won’t go alone. My patients were usually the elderly poor, suffering the cumulative effects of a lifetime of neglected health care. They were often raising their grandchildren, while their children struggled to make a way in the world. Their cumulative stories won’t leave me alone. My relationships lasted for years (this was before Medicare reform) so I saw sweet, eager to please 7 year olds turn into 13 year olds. Ailing, elderly grandmothers can’t manage teenagers. Mothers and fathers working 3 jobs can’t intently focus on the needs of their children. And the environment? A poet I was fond of in my teens, Merritt Malloy, put it well: Love does not live on the streets unless the streets are your home.
I remember filling insulin syringes for one lady, almost blind from diabetic retinopathy. She was looking into the courtyard of the projects, in between the laundry drying on the clotheslines, and she heard the teenagers hanging out. Fluffing their feathers, being loud, defiant, and proud. She looked back to me with such sadness, and told her story. She so badly wanted to go to school. But she didn’t have any shoes. One day she slipped on her mother’s shoes and went. Her small feet slid around inside those big shoes, but she was happy. She flip flapped all the way to school, only to be met with ridicule for her big shoes. She never went back. She looked toward the voices of the young men outside her window and slowly shook her head. They could go where she could not, yet they chose to hang out. They have the opportunity, but they won’t take it. Evidently they do not see benefit in education.
So, what would I do to make the Charleston a better place? First I would make high quality daycare available to marginalized Charlestonians. Committed, quality day care with optimal teacher/child ratios — the kind I am able to provide my son. So when these children start school, they’ll not be embarrassed by ignorance. They’ll have the building blocks for reading, and math, and science. They’ll have been exposed to music and art and computers. I wouldn’t charge for this day care. But I’m not talking about just a Head Start Effort here. That is just the beginning.
If mothers and fathers want their children in this wonderful place (and from my experience in the projects, they do…its not a lack of love that is the root of the problem) then they have to participate. By going to technical school. I think community colleges are the most undervalued of institutions. Unencumbered by the need to publish or die, these instructors can teach. The administrations, not saddled with keeping tenured professors of dusty scholarship productive, can develop programs to quickly respond to the employment needs of their community. The government publishes job reports and salary projections and all libraries have them. There are career fields where a two year degree will set you up for a career making a living wage. Computer networking? My husband graduated 2 years ago and makes >$40K/yr. And his employer is paying for his BS now. Nursing? Big shortage. Living wage. A 2-year degree can get you in the door, and your employer will help with your BS. Radiology technician? Living wage. Those are the examples I know off the top of my head. I’m sure there are more.
So my big thought is, pay for these degrees. Pay for the children to get state of the art day care. Support these families, who, regardless of the reason, seem to start life on a dead end street. Totally support them for 4 years. (it may take one year to get past the 100 level courses, and then a year to get stabilized on the first job) The requirement? Maintain those grades, in career fields that are in demand. I’m not talking about extended welfare. But throwing people off the welfare rolls because there are low level jobs out there — that’s not going to solve our problems.
Those who stick with it will have success. They won’t be working 90 hours a week at $10/hour jobs, or failing that, selling dope or their bodies on the street corners. Their children will see that there is a benefit to education — that delayed gratification satisfies on multiple levels. And because of their pre school preparation, these kids won’t start their academic careers in the turtle group. Within one generation Charleston would be a much better place. Within two generations, this program would require significantly less money, and those resources could then used to fund another way to make the world a better place.
Comment by: Peter in Pennsylvania
4Julie Marie,
Welcome to my list of heroes! If you were in my church and you told me that story, I’d tell you that God was calling you to lead it, and I’d tell our leadership team about it, and they’d offer real support.
I’m going to pass that story along around here!
Comment by: Ir
5Peter, do they let women lead stuff at your church? Do they let women be pastors? I guess that’s another one on my list: I’d erase a few Bible verses (just a few - I don’t think many would have to go) so that no-one could argue against women pastors anymore.
Comment by: Julie Marie
6thanks Peter. It is a God sized dream, isn’t it? As my pastor would say, a BHAG. (Big Hairy Audacious Goal.)
My church is big and blessed with resources. And passionate about being the arms and legs and feet of Jesus. I think I will share my dream to make Charleston a better place.
Comment by: john
7If I could do one thing that would make the world a better place, it would to become a Christian and follow as a disciple of Christ the two things that everything hangs off of:
That would make the world a better place - at least for all who live around and with me.
–John
Comment by: Ir
8Neat.
I hope your dream can become enough other peoples’ dreams that you can see some of it go from being a dream to really happening.
Comment by: David S
9How does that make the world a better place?
Comment by: Julie Marie
10me too! two things to be excited about in one week? oh my. And both in the week after Easter. Oh my, the symbolism makes me want to jump for joy!
Comment by: Peter in Pennsylvania
11Ir asks
Yes. There are no limitations on women in leadership here. We’ve had women on the pastoral team before (although we don’t currently) and the person who leads our lay leadership team (the big decision-makers) is a women as are about half that team. I believe those who say women can’t lead in the church are severely mis-reading Scripture.
David writes
Well, the way I understand Jesus’ two big commandments… He says you can’t separate the first from the second. In other words, if you say you love God, but don’t love your neighbor, you’re not really loving God…
Comment by: Tom in Sacramento
12And, furthermore, it is the first that enables the second in fullest measure.
I think John hit the big one so I’ll settle for a small one.
If I were King of the World, I would require the teaching of economics at every level of school and every grade.
Because if you understand economics you will understand freedom and responsibility. And you will understand how money works. And if you understand those three things, then there is nothing that is not accessible to you if you are willing to step up. Understanding those three things would solve the problems of the First-, Second-, and Third-Worlds.
But, as it is, in the US, a person can go from kindergarde to a PhD without eveer taking a class in economics and so they remain utterly ignorant of how the system works, and thus propose unworkable solutions to the problems they desire to fix.
Comment by: Eliza
13Julie Marie - I’d seen hints cropping up in your posts that you’re a nurse and have worked with people in less than ideal circumstances - thank you for telling us more of your experiences and your vision - you go, girl! More power to you!
In response to Peter’s phrasing of the question as:
I’m going to go grandiose and say:
(1) Eliminate endemic infectious diseases (like malaria, TB, HIV). If that’s too big a goal, then just eliminate endemic infectious diseases in children & prevent new infections in children. Everywhere in the world. (Gates Foundation is taking a stab at this.)
(2) Feed, clothe, and shelter at a basic level everyone (or, at least everyone who wants help meeting these human needs).
Yeah, sure, there would be ramifications, like more people living longer (& needing food/shelter, etc). And it’s not “realistic” economically. But, those weren’t limitations Peter placed on us in the question…
Comment by: Peter in Pennsylvania
14Tom writes
There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Once you’ve mastered that, you’ll understand it all better! (That’s what my economics prof in college said the first day of class. He said that was practically the only thing he was going to teach us for the whole semester… strange dude, drove a convertible top-down all winter…)
Thanks, Eliza, you definitely got to the meat of the question. I wonder if we don’t see that we can actually, within our limited means, find a way to contribute to all those things right where we are!
Comment by: David S
15Tom,
You can’t get two economists to agree on much of anything (let alone actually have them improve an economic problem) and you want to train more of them? How about we instead just get the economists, banks, and government we have to stop twisting the monetary system to their benefit.
Comment by: Tom in Sacramento
16I only put the top down on nice days. Had down on the way to work for the first time this year, today.
But it’s true. If you understand TANSTAAFL it helps clarify a lot of stuff. And, given a second principle, it would be the Law of Unintended Consequences.
Comment by: NCxian
17Double public-school teacher pay (assuming it is done with extra money, not taken from education elsewhere). It is sad–and indefensible–how little we pay folks who are the gatekeepers of our future. I would add child care workers to my dream, but Julie Marie has that covered.
Comment by: Jim Henderson
18Teach people the “art of noticing” and the power of paying attention and being unusually interested in others.
Train Cs (and anyone else who might care) to become “great listeners” and why to L ear N means to listen
Comment by: Jim Henderson
19Peter
You did a great job leading the blog - you brought your heart and passion - thanks for being real
Comment by: Lisa Wellington
20Rather than overwhelming myself with ideas of making the larger world a better place I will start with my own littler world. I will start as I do each day: trying to be a little kinder to my mother. Maybe somehow there is a ripple effect in doing so.
Comment by: john
21I noticed that a lot of people’s idea for make the world a better place was to ‘Make People ‘. Why is it that we always look to change others. My first post was the idea to change me. That in turn would cause others to notice, hopefully, and change themselves.
My wife use to say that if she were ‘God’ she would leave all but one thing the same. People could not lie. No matter what they were compelled to tell the truth. That was always an interesting concept to me.
Cheers
Comment by: Peter in Pennsylvania
22John…
OOOH… you got us. It is interesting to me how often we think about how to MTWABP doesn’t include changing ourselves. Guilty as charged…
Comment by: TXatheist
23Good job Peter
Comment by: LisaHG
24Make sure everyone has enough money for adequate food, shelter and education. Take that money away from the richest so that we’re all pushed toward the middle. That alone would improve the world in so many ways.
Comment by: Ir
25I’m happy to include me in the group of people who need to be changed.
Comment by: NCxian
26Thanks, Peter. I’ve enjoyed your prompts!
Comment by: Esther
27Jim wrote,
You were not just thinking about it, you are actually working on it!
Way to go, Jim!