"I'm what the world considers to be a phenomenally successful man. And I've failed much more than I've succeeded. And each time I fail, I get my people together, and I say, "Where are we going?" And it starts to get better." - Calvin Trager
Thursday, September 02, 2004 Bono was on FoxNews' The O'Reilly Factor last night. The full transcript is well worth reading.
As he always does, he holds up to America the image of what we can be, what we are when we're at our best. But also tells it like it is. We're No. 22 among rich countries in terms of percentage of giving to poor countries (and his .15% that he quotes is a liberal estimate).
The big message in all of this is that the world is looking to us ... the world is waiting for us.
Since I've been back in the U.S., every day ... in many ways every waking hour ... I've been aware that there are people in Ghana who are looking to me for hope. Me personally. I know the community at All Souls in Buduburam is. I know James is. I know Emmanuel is. I know they are looking to me in hope because I have so much wealth and power and ability just by virtue of my American citizenship and the family of the church I have here.
Some days that weighs heavily on my soul. I'm not about to forget them, but just knowing that they really are counting on me is at once a great creator of meaning and purpose for my life and a drain of energy.
I didn't feel this way before I went to Ghana ... but the truth is that it was still true even before I went. The rest of the world is looking to us in hope. We are the world's hope. We are their hope for a better life ... and in many cases just for life, period. My time in Ghana just brought it home personally ... put faces and deep and wonderful relationships on it. But it didn't create anything new that wasn't there before.
Jeffrey Sachs says that we in America have all the resources it will take to end poverty. The world knows it ... the only ones who don't seem to know it is us. The world is watching and waiting. And waiting. And waiting.
| Mike at 9/02/2004 12:33:00 AM
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Want to find out more ... check our our website at www.e4gr.org.
"Christ's example is being
demeaned by the church if they ignore the new leprosy,
which is AIDS. The church is the sleeping giant here.
If it wakes up to what's really going on in the rest
of the world, it has a real role to play. If it doesn't,
it will be irrelevant."
- Bono
Episcopalians for 
