Photo Source AP
Good morning, Netizens...

In my reverie this morning, I gazed repeatedly at this picture of a woman carrying firewood using a headband and her 18-month-old daughter down a dangerous road in the African Congo. This was shot on the road linking Rupango to Sake, Congo, which is stricken by war, death and carnage that stalks the land like a remorseless savage out of control. She walks the 16 kms every day, crossing from the CNDP rebel-controlled area to the government-held town of Sake to sell wood. That is how she survives.

Suddenly I realized how damn much we actually have in this country to be thankful for as we approach the gluttony we call Thanksgiving Day. Everybody, even the impoverished and destitute have to have a Thanksgiving Day turkey, to sit around the dining room table and eat extra helpings free of any guilt. We gleefully contribute to Tom's Turkey Drive and various other charities so that everyone can share our sin of gluttony free of any tinges of guilt, but as Dr. John Olsen mentioned the other day, the rest of the year we ignore poverty in our community, if not the entire world. We seemingly have a knee-jerk reaction to where we ignore world-wide abject poverty, which may be worse than anything we have seen in this country, we patently ignore the chaos and pathos because it cannot interfere with our Thanksgiving Day feasts.

Peer into this woman's eyes and someone please tell me why three-quarters of the world eke out their lives under such miserable conditions.

Dave

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