What’s next?

I’m reading Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide after recently seeing one of its authors, Sheryl WuDunn, speak at a Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin luncheon. Simultaneously painful and inspiring, it’s really got me thinking about what’s next, specifically, who we should help next. With #saveteecycle, we collectively raised about $12,000 and rebuilt a family’s home. For $13,000, a school can be built in a Cambodian village through Rural School Project, helping keep young girls out of brothels.

In Half the Sky, WuDunn and Nicholas Kristof share this Hawaiian parable, which I adore:

A man goes out on the beach and sees that it is covered with starfish that have washed up in the tide. A little boy is walking along, picking them up and throwing them back into the water.

“What are you doing, son?” the man asks. “You see how many starfish there are? You’ll never make a difference.”

The boy paused thoughtfully, and picked up another starfish and threw it into the ocean.

“It sure made a difference to that one,” he said.

So. What’s next? Think about it with me, won’t you?

  • http://tosabeat.blogspot.com/ Mike Collins

    Nice parable. I like this – and the real big difference when everybody does just a little. Thanks for sharing.

    • http://www.spaighttalk.com Sue Spaight

      Thanks for the note, Mike. The book is fantastic, highly recommend. Lots of inspiring stories of individuals rising to do what they can.

  • http://www.c2gps.com Erica Conway

    I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit as well. I went to an event for Storyville Coffee, wonderful event put on by a coffee company who has committed to freeing the 27 million people enslaved throughout the world. It was a slick set up, logo’d chairs, big screen TVs, pro video, all set up in a lovely home, with a show by Willy Porter. The premise is nice, pay $35, see the show, learn about the charity, buy some coffee or a french press-type coffee maker set and help free some of those 27 million slaves.

    I walked out after the intermission, during which they showed a gorgeous pro video about their cause, including photos of some of the freed slaves, and a promo for the $600 coffee maker and expensive coffee.

    I was really mad. What about ALL the problems we have HERE? In our own back yard??? Yes, both are important. I don’t want slavery to exist ANYWHERE. But kids in the US cannot read, are homeless, obese/diabetic or hungry. The kids that can’t compete academically, are they doomed to lives of poverty and crime, leading to an overcrowded penal system? Could we as a collective make a change?

    My point is this: Everyone needs help. I just think we should clean up our own backyard before we can help anyone else. We can leverage a more powerful USA once we have everyone moving forward. I can’t imagine the rationale for ignoring the plight of the children here in lieu of children overseas. I know they all need help…how do you decide where to put your money?

    I do want to make a difference, like the boy and the starfish, I’ll do it one kid at a time. I put my resources (rather, those of C2) into kids from Community High School, the kids at St. Marcus, the On-Ramp program. I donate to most local/national charities I get hit up for…breast cancer, leukemia/lymphoma, Crohns & Colitis, Humane Society, TeecyleTim, The Blood Center…

    I want people to shop locally, donate locally. Build a strong US and we can spread our strength to those in need. So, I struggle with our presence in Iraq and the enormous financial resources that were allocated to that mission and often wonder what they could have done here. Across the country, schools are underfinanced, students are under served and American kids are now ranked some of the least competitive in the WORLD.

    What’s next? I fear to imagine our shared future if we can’t pull ourselves up, starting with the children.

    • http://www.spaighttalk.com Sue Spaight

      Erica,

      Wow, thanks for the passionate comment. I absolutely understand your point of view, have wrestled with it, and thought it would come up here. I think every individual has to make their own choice about what type of helping feels right. For me, while yes,
      I would love to also help more locally (and plan to), if I also have an idea for how to work with a local organization to help girls both locally AND halfway or more across the world, than so be it. The world is the community. $120 here barely makes a dent. $120 in Africa buys a goat which can earn enough money for a family to send a girl to school. That said, I too would sure like to see us spending a lot less money on war and a lot more fixing the serious problems we do have right here at home. On that we definitely agree. Just read a persuasive case in the NY Times that the ongoing commitment to Afghanistan, ostensibly for the cause of “women’s rights”, is not really even helping women. Imagine what those billions of dollars could do for the homeless, hungry, uneducated here in the U.S.

      One kid at a time. Amen.

  • thatwoman

    I really love Erica’s passion in her response. I often find that we don’t do enough in our own backyard. And for those companies, celeb’s etc., they tend to do more “overseas,” with feeding the hungry, providing much needed medical care to those who cannot afford it, or starting schools in Africa (Oprah) then looking around the corner from their plush offices.

    Alterra, Stone Creek, all do more to ensure proper working conditions overseas. One thing I like about Ashton Kutcher that his latest cause to to prevent child trafficking of US children “from the US into to foreign countries.

    We need to pay attention to our own run down backyards. Those who are hurting in our backyards. Those without and education or who are being sexually abused in our own backyard. If everyone, or even just a small group of someones, paid attention to their own backyard – then we will have a nationwide collective of beautiful, well nurtured and cared for backyards.

    What’s next? It’s okay to reach out, as long as the hands that are reaching out first sought to look within. cdism.

    • http://www.spaighttalk.com Sue Spaight

      Beautiful, CD. Absolutely beautiful. Thank you.

  • http://www.bayviewneighborhood.organdhttp://www.independencefirst.org Carol Voss

    When I think about getting involved, I’ve been fortunate to take ideas to action and get folks in my neighborhood working on passion projects. I helped found the Bay View Neighborhood Association 501c3 with 7 concerned neighbors who put their thoughts to action. I was their first elected Board Chair. This little neighborhood group has swelled to doing amazing things to improve the quality of life in the neighborhood and all pursued their passions to help–greening the neighborhood, night time trick or treat, a street festival, pumpkin pavilion, buy local initiative, more. As for me, I started the Chill on the Hill concert series at Humboldt park on a wing and a prayer. I had a goal, I made it happen, got others involved and now its grown thanks to their help–I have a sponsorship person now (Patty who is fantastic!), volunteers that help, neighborhood buy-in. I still do what I love and work on booking the bands and joining my family to enjoy the fruits of my labor. We’ll be in our 7th season this summer with over 3,000 people coming to our neighborhood enjoying free music in the park in fellowship, with their friends, their kids, their family as a result each Tuesday night. The South Shore farmers’ market started that way too through another local neighbor volunteer group.

    I often wonder why people who are passionate don’t just stop thinking and talking, and start doing. It can be done. All of it. Where there’s a will there’s a way. Use existing nonprofits and start to help in a few hours that you have if you don’t have time to pursue your passion. Write a check to help those who can make things happen and who’s work you agree with supporting. I encourage everyone, if you have a true passion, make it a quest and see it through. Leverage your contacts and do it. Or talk about it, meet others who share your vision and develop the synergy to make things work. There’s lots of work to be done.

    My day job is at a nonprofit organization with a quest for inclusion and opportunities for full participation in society for people with disabilities (at IndependenceFirst). We always can use your volunteer hours, support and assistance. Of course, there’s many nonprofits who can.

    Thanks for posting Sue – this is a great way to help people think about what they can do, taking even small steps to make their community better and how they can follow their passions and make something happen. Good luck on pursuing your “passion quests” everyone!

    • http://www.spaighttalk.com Sue Spaight

      Carol, wow, you are an inspiration in so many ways. And I think you really hit something on the head – the most important thing is what your individual passions are. Just like when we tell an organization that the “right” person to do their social media is the one with the passion and commitment…the “right” social cause is whatever you have both the passion for and the means to achieve. I also love your point about finding others who share your vision, whether that is a group of individual citizens or an existing organization with the shared mission to support your idea. That is why the growth of social media has done so much to change and spur activism; I don’t know about you, but I for one feel like I have much greater means to an end than before.
      Use what you have, do all you can, whether it’s in your backyard, or in a backyard far away. Thanks for sharing your ideas. -Sue

  • http://www.troyfreund.com Troy Freund

    Boy, I can’t remember where I first heard the starfish story, but it was ages ago and is a story that never hurts to hear again. We all can use a reminder that the enormity of a problem shouldn’t stop up from wanting to make as much of a change as we can. I agree with Erica that we do need to tend our “back yard” a bit more. I think that people shy away from it, as that requires a bit more mirror-looking than some people want to deal with. It’s “easier” to deal with problems that are “out there” than to deal with our own issues, because that might suggest that we’re somewhat less than stellar. That said, I don’t think it has to be one or the other. It needs to be both. People need help here, people need help there. Just gotta allocate your time/energy/$ as best you can can to the causes that you feel important.

    • http://www.spaighttalk.com Sue Spaight

      Really well said Troy, good insights. Maybe that tendency to want to look away is why the media seems to delve less into issues at home, too. Or maybe that is not a fair observation and I am not reading the right reporters. I would like to hear more – more deeply – about the issues in our backyards.

  • Linda Neff

    Love all the dialogue your post has generated and especially appreciate hearing how ideas have become realities – Carol, it is completely staggering how your idea has taken flight – wow!

    Here’s a thought – in the spirit of #saveteecycle and providing roofs over heads, there is an amazing organization who is working with homeless teens right here in our city called Pathfinders – http://www.pathfindersmke.org. I was shocked to learn how many homeless teens we have in our community. The kids themselves told me, “yea, we’re throw away kids.” There are only 20 beds in our city who house homeless teens. The kids shared that many nights they find shelter under bridges or unlocked cars in dealerships.

    The crazy thing is, these kids don’t feel sorry for themselves. They are intelligent, well spoken, passionate individuals who are working to lift themselves up – lift themselves out of something that wasn’t of their choosing. One dynamic young man shared his idea for a fundraiser for bus passes for the kids who attend the programming at Pathfinders because “not everyone here is as lucky as I am – they don’t own their own bicycle.” In speaking with him you would never guess that everything he owns is in a single locker at Pathfinders and from night-to-night he has no idea where he will lay down his head.

    These are kids who want to be part of the solution and are ready and willing to put ideas into action despite their lack of resources and social/professional/viral networks.

    I would welcome the opportunity to connect you with the young people at Pathfinders. Perhaps they might be able to help build and augment #saveteecycle into roofs over heads for Milwaukee’s youngest and brightest – perhaps some of those roofs might someday include a backyard or two!