Nobody Should Starve
Recent events and situations have brought me to recommit to a position I adopted a long time ago:

Nobody should starve.

If I am going to support any effort to make the world a better place, I want to support those that feed people. Somebody who grows up hungry is likely also to grow up envious and angry, likely to grow up resenting those with more than themselves, and likely to want to do something about it.

If we can feed everyone, we take the emotional temperature of the planet down a notch.

I support other efforts, and whatever you want to do is fine by me, I won't argue with whatever you choose (with some exceptions.)

ISIS is heavy in the news today. My younger son sent me an article from the Atlantic Monthly, an analysis of the religious feeling that drives ISIS. A good article, worth reading.

I, and you, if you are reading this on the internet, have a stake in reducing the emotional temperature of the planet. You have access to technology, which puts you among the wealthier inhabitants of the planet. I don't know exactly what percentage you are in, top 25%, top 10%, or top 1%, but I'm pretty sure there are a lot more people who are worse off than you than there are people who are better off.

We went to see the movie, Sicario, yesterday. One way to read that movie is an indictment of the well off nations who protect themselves at the expense of the poorer nations.

Let me propose to you. Either we - those of us in the wealthier group of people - can bring the rest up to our standard of living, or they will try to bring us down.

This summer brought an ant invasion to our house. We are keeping them at bay, just barely, but there are far more of them than there are of us and they don't even seem to sleep. We came back this morning and they were swarming all over our kitchen. I could call the exterminator, I could spray lethal insecticides, but all that does is postpone the next attack.

My choice is to bring the rest of the world up, if only in a small way.

Nobody should starve.