Holiday Greetings!
This holiday season and in the coming year,
Let us practice the change we wish to see in the world.
A donation in honor of our clients, colleagues, and friends was made to Doctors without Borders for their work with the refugees of Darfur.
Refugees are endemic throughout the world. While we do not usually cover international news, this time of the year it is appropriate to consider the freedoms that we take for granted and the terrible needs of others. The genocide and the displacement of the people of Darfur call us to action.
The abject failure of our governmental agencies to function during a time of national crisis in the Gulf Coast states during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita last year was another example of a disaster that rendered many homeless.
Perhaps you do not see the thread that connects refugees of Darfur to displaced people of New Orleans to citizens of Bound Brook, New Jersey, who have lived in an area designated "in need of redevelopment" since 1999 and the floods of Hurricane Andrew. One crisis is international, one is national, and one remains in our own backyard. The proportions may be weighed, but the degrees of separation are no greater than our awareness.
We have a choice: We can ignore the plight of thousands in the world, or we can support organizations that benefit situations we cannot change. We can create displacement through misuse of eminent domain and redevelopment laws that threaten homes and businesses, or we can change the federal and state laws.
Let us dedicate ourselves in the new year to practicing a greater concern for humanity in our personal actions and our laws. President John F. Kennedy said, "Of those to whom much is given, much is required." And Mahatma Gandhi said, "Be the change you wish to see in the world."
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