A Different Christmas

Dear friends and family,

As some of you may already know, I recently got back from a 2 ½ month stay in a small Ghanaian village called Abomosu. What a trip! I ate fufu, hiked to beautiful waterfalls, and most importantly, worked hard to help the people in the community.

For those of you know that don’t know much about what I was doing there I was working with a microfinance program. Our goal was to educate willing people on basic business principles and then give small business loans to individuals that had good business ideas. Over time, those individuals will pay back their loans with interest, we will extend new loans and the amount of money we have to lend out (and consequently the number of people we can help) will increase as time goes on.

One of the most common questions many of you have asked me about my stay in Ghana is “what is it like over there?” You know it is different but you’re not quite sure how. It has always been kind of hard for me to answer that question. In my two trips that I’ve taken to Ghana I’ve spent a total of 5 ½ months there. If you’d asked me during my first few weeks in the country what was different I would have mentioned the food, the lack of regular electricity, air conditioning, potable water, etc. But as you live there and get used to those things you kind of start to forget about them (well, mostly…). Obviously I would have mentioned the extreme poverty as well. While most people in Ghana do manage to get enough to eat every day thanks to their incredibly productive farms, the average income for a poor farmer is still less than $100 a year. Most of them live in mud huts and most of them walk to get water from the village well.

The longer I stayed there one subtle difference that I hadn’t noticed at first seemed to stand out more than all of the others. Let me tell you a story to try and illustrate it:

When I was in high school, high school was definitely the lowest priority on my list. I went to school but most of my time was spent focusing on rock climbing, playing soccer, etc. Still, miraculously, I managed to get a pretty decent education. At the insistence of my parents and the high school faculty I signed up to take the dreaded ACT college placement test. Did I study? Of course not. The first time I took it I got a 23. The second time I got a 25 (the max score is 36. I was the first one in my family to get below a 30). As you know, 25 is not an especially good score. My 3.2 GPA I graduated high school with was not great either.

The really amazing thing was that as little as I cared about education in high school I was still accepted into two great colleges. When I got there my priorities changed I ended up graduating Cum Laude with a 3.81 GPA. Upon graduation I had several different great job offers making more money than I could possibly know what to do with (well, besides blowing it all on really nice mountain biking gear…).

Now let me tell you a story about David. When I got to Ghana the second time I was asked to teach the 16-18 year old young men at the church I was attending. David was one of these young men. He is one of the smartest people I have ever met. He speaks his local language (Twi) and English beautifully. His favorite thing to do by far is to learn. He would rather study than play soccer or anything else he could be doing. David is 16 years old and recently took his examination to get accepted to high school. The exam is out of 50 points. A good score on the exam is below 30. A great score is below 20. David got a 13. With such an amazing score he was accepted to good high schools all over Ghana.

(David is the one in the light blue shirt)
The problem was David’s family didn’t have the money to send him to any of the high schools. When I met David he was preparing to give up his dreams of becoming a journalist and become a coconut farmer with his dad instead.

The contrast between David’s story and mine is so stark it’s incredible. I cared nothing about high school and walked away with a wonderful college education paid for largely by scholarships. David’s greatest ambition in life is to go to school and work hard studying but instead he was on a path to spend his whole life working in the jungle tending coconut trees and selling their fruit on the street.

That for me is the biggest difference between America and Ghana: the opportunities available in each place. We really are opportunity rich and they are opportunity impoverished.

(Desmond)

In October some friends and I did something very small to try and alter at least a bit of this dichotomy. We each paid $250 to get David and one of his friends named Desmond into high school. They are currently attending Kwabeng Senior High School and doing great.

Now, is this the very best way to fight poverty in Ghana? In the world? That’s an open discussion that I would love have with any of you. All I know is that for two really bright kids a comparatively small amount of money from my pocket made a really big difference in their lives.

Anyway, I want to invite all of you to make a similar difference in some other great kids’ lives. In addition to David and Desmond there are ten other great guys I’ve identified in the village I was living in that could really benefit from your help this Christmas. Rather than getting into the details of how your donations could take place let me just put my contact information  here and you go ahead and get in touch with me if you’re interested: email me at [email protected] or call me at 435-705-8297.

Thanks guys,

Supe Lillywhite

Why Voting in the National Election Doesn’t Make You a Patriot

And a response to the statement, “if you don’t vote you have no right to complain.” 

As election day approaches Alexis De Tocqueville’s perspicacious observation of America is once again being proved true; said he, "Long before the appointed day arrives, the election becomes the greatest, and one might say the only, affair occupying men's minds. ... The President, for his part, is absorbed in the task of defending himself before the majority. ... As the election draws near, intrigues grow more active and agitation is more lively and widespread. The citizens divide up (and the) whole nation gets into a feverish state."

With the advent of Facebook and other social media this is more true than ever. People that generally pay no attention to politics whatsoever now find time to post on their walls regarding the “importance of the election” and to forcefully voice their opinions on how they think it should turn out. One of my friends wisely posted on his wall, “Funny how everyone is sooo into politics for a few months during an election, just like they are sooo into swimming for a few months during an Olympic year. You passion whores!”

Besides just Facebook, political conversation and passion is at an increased pitch in every part of our lives. I recently became acquainted with seven new Americans through my work that I spend a substantial amount of time with each day (all quality people that I am very blessed to work with). As quickly as our second or third day together the question had already been raised, “So, who is everyone voting for?”

It was at this point that I got into trouble. When it was my turn to respond I dropped the equivalent of a conversational bomb shell by simply saying that I wasn’t voting this time around. The chorus of scandalized disapproval was as fervent as it was united. In the flood of well-meaning remonstrations that followed this commonly heard saying was often repeated: “Well, just remember, if you don’t vote you have no right to complain!”
That saying, and the underlying assumptions that go along with it provide the genesis of my ramblings today. 

For some reason in our society today it has become a commonly accepted belief that the simple act of voting makes you a patriotic citizen of the United States, and that failing to vote makes you an ignoramus, a shirker and certainly deprives you of the liberty of political free speech. Personally, I feel quite differently about the matter. In my opinion, the simple fact that you vote does not make you a patriot (and in fact I feel that when many people vote they are acting unpatriotically) and that not voting in many instances is a patriotic act in its own right. Please allow me to explain this belief and a few of my reasons for choosing not to vote this year. 

First of all, maybe let me provide a bit of context based on my own failed voting history. Eight years ago as a brand new voter I went to the polls and cast my vote in favor of George Bush. I wasn’t terribly informed but I believed that a vote for Bush meant fighting terror, making the world a safer place, etc., etc. And, I was a republican so I was supposed to vote republican, right? Since that time I’ve matured enough to realize that my vote condoned the continuation of the Iraqi and Afghanistan Wars which have claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Middle Easterners and thousands of US soldiers. And is the world a safer, better place because of those wars? Now, I am not saying that a John Kerry presidency would have been any better but I am saying that I was entirely ignorant of the potential consequences of my decision when as an eighteen year old I cast my first vote strictly based on party lines and party talking points.

Story number two. Four years ago I considered myself much wiser and more informed. After all, I had reached the ripe old age of twenty-two! I remember how frustrated I was that neither candidate for the presidency that year really stood for what I believed in. Making my choice was much harder. But, in the end, I subscribed to a popular method for making my decision: I voted for the man that I felt like was “the lesser of two evils.”

It is my opinion that a substantial number of voters each year vote following using the two methods I described in my stories to guide their decisions. Either they vote on party lines because obviously the democrats/republicans (pick your party here!) are the good guys, or they vote for the candidate they feel is the lesser of two evils. I seriously wonder how many people actually think the man running for office in their particular party is the best man for the job and clearly intends to work for the things that are most important to them? Again, I think a lot of people either don’t think about it at all or just figure that the person they’re voting for “is at least better than the other guy!” I’m sorry, but if this is the way our leaders are chosen in America it just doesn’t instill a lot of confidence in me.

Voting primarily based on party lines with no real enthusiasm for or knowledge about the man you are voting for does not seem like an exercise in patriotism to me. Rather, it seems like robotic submission or blind stupidity. Voting for the lesser of two evils, while more understandable than the previous option, seems like trying to get away with the most limited participation possible in a system you have no faith in. But, to the people that really believe that Barack Obama or Mitt Romney is absolutely the best man for the job and represents your views 100%, kudos! Your vote is truly an act of faithful patriotism. I just don’t feel even close to that way about either candidate.

I think what bothers me most about voting in America today is what takes place after election day. Far too often it seems like people go into an election with their minds too firmly made up about what they will do once the election is over. If their guy wins they are fully determined to spend the next four years supporting him “no matter what!” They will defend him against every attack and criticism no matter how stupid or blatantly partisan his policies are. On the other hand, if their guy doesn’t win they are equally determined to spend the next four years tearing down his opponent “no matter what!” It doesn’t matter how much good the man may do for the country, he will always be scorned because he was not their choice. The hypocrisy would almost be funny if it weren’t so sad. If their guy is in office and something goes wrong in the country or in their life they say, “Thank goodness we have our guy is in office to take of such a big problem!” And, “At least so-and-so isn’t in office, think how much worse it would have been then!” If their guy isn’t in office they burst out, “If our guy was in none of this ever would have happened! Clearly this is evidence of the other guy’s incompetence and not simply one of those things that just happens in life!”

To tell you the truth, this charade is too exhausting for me to participate in. Remembering who to blame, who zealously to defend against all sane reasoning, who to demonize and who to idolize is too much for me. I see people work themselves into a frenzy every four years and shout with rapturous delight “if our guy is elected it’s going to revolutionize the country! Jobs will abound, taxes will be reduced and free iPhones will fall from the sky in cushioned velvet boxes!” They shout it, they text it and they tweet it. Somehow, two years after the elections are over not much has really changed.

Which is why I have arrived at my own formula for deciding if I’ll vote and who I’ll vote for. Here it is for your consideration:

If there is someone that I really believe represents what I believe and would work to shape the country into the type of place I want to live in, and if I really believe that person has a chance of being elected, I’ll vote for them and work hard to see that they are elected. But, regardless of whether there is someone I want to vote for or not, I am going to work on my own to make America a better place. I guess that is maybe what people don’t get. I don’t want to complain about the government. I think that complaining in general is a waste of time that drains the body and soul of precious energy that could be used to better yourself and the world around you. Just think about it. Think of what the brilliant minds of Rush Limbaugh, Alan Combs, etc. could have accomplished in life if they hadn’t chosen to spend their lives complaining about politics on the radio. Have they really contributed anything of value to this world?

Maybe I am just too lazy to spend any time getting hyped up about politics and complaining about it afterwards. I don’t know. I think my real problem is that I am too arrogant. I firmly believe that whichever party is in power I, and Americans like me will be able to solve America’s most pressing problems outside of the political arena. At times this may be easier or harder for us to do depending on who is in power but I am still going to make America and the world a better place regardless. The simple fact is, my destiny and the destiny of America are in my hands, God’s hands, the hands of Americans like me that will keep working hard no matter what. So, forgive me if I don’t want to waste time voting for someone I don’t believe in, complaining about someone because I didn’t vote for them, and want to use my time taking action beyond the log-jammed realm of Washington to make America a better place instead.

Supe Lillywhite

Notes:

I wonder how many of the people that are so patriotic around national elections actually vote in their local elections. The reality is that since the elimination of the draft, the choices of your local leaders will affect your lives much more than the actions of national leaders will.

The profound skepticism in national government I have voiced here does not mean I believe there is no hope for effective national government. Please read this previous post for my recommendations on reforming the national government if you’re interested. http://supelillywhite.blogspot.com/2011/07/elected-office.html