I am Not Anti-America, I am Just Pro-Human

There seems to be enough resources, that if we innovate, and conserve what we have, there would plenty to go around. I think we should share. To many, that makes me anti-American, a socialist, a communist, a hippie dirt bag, etc.
I work in the world of philosophy, I preach potentially, and it saddens me to admit that my pets eat better than children in third-world countries. There has to be a better way to distribute the world’s resources. If we could only focus on that instead of killing each other.
I know, I know, it’s their fault, those faceless evil others who are plotting to destroy all that we hold dear. But, would they be plotting if we would just share? And what is it, exactly, that we hold so dear? The land that we stole? The stuff that we buy from other countries, the stuff that breaks and turns into junk? The food that makes us obese and send us to an early grave? The good health that we refuse to share with our nation’s poor? The thousands of miles of fence that protect our boarders from those huddled masses on whose very backs we stand?
What are we really trying to protect by not sharing?
Well, I think it’s probably our level of comfort. We have been trained to think that comfort equals happiness, and that giving away happiness to others we reduce our own joy. This is the truth for some, but not for all. It is as possible to be happy without comfort as it is to be miserable with it. And, sharing happiness has the potential to increase one’s own joy. I know this from experience.
I’m not ashamed to admit that I don’t care that we are in a recession, or that some folks are being forced to live a simpler life. I think it’s good for us to get a taste of what it is always like for some people in other countries. I care more that the people in Southern Sudan still don’t have water, I care more that the people in Tibet still don’t have religious freedom. I like this country and most of the people in it, but we’re okay, others are not.
Ultimately, we are not Americans, we are humans. Humanity is only as strong as it’s weakest link. While I was writing this our weakest link died of a combination of starvation and inherited AIDS somewhere in Sub-Sahara Africa. It is a sad story, and one that we all helped to write.
I’m glad I live in this American. To be an American is have the powerful privilege of wealth, even for the poorest of this country. Being American gives me access to platforms like these to speak from, and above all, being American gives me enough to share.

- Alison Lyke