Summer Fellowship: Helping the Helpless

Submitted by Carson Perez on June 18, 2008 - 11:02pm.

In the 2006 Children’s Defense Fund Annual Report, Marian Wright Edelman introduces her message with two other prophetic voices: “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said that there are two kinds of leaders: thermometer leaders and thermostat leaders. The former stick their fingers in the air to feel the political temperature and adjust; the latter seek to change the political climate to promote justice for all. For 34 years CDF has sought to be a thermostat leader and to follow Mahatma Gandhi’s often repeated statement as he sought to free India from colonial rule without despondency: ‘Full effort is full victory.’”

I am so encouraged by President Edelman’s invocation of Dr. King’s and Gandhi’s great words, not simply because they are memorable statements by iconic leaders, but because their words give me hope for America’s children, as CDF leads the way in children’s advocacy.

Working at CDF has certainly opened my eyes to the plight of children in a realistic way. My commitment to the welfare of America’s children is not a naïve hope that they will all grow up to be doctors and lawyers, and live in big homes in the suburbs, and drive new cars, and have nice things. My immediate hope is that they will not be overwhelmed or even die from the pangs of our nation’s demons, or what Dr. King called the triple dangers: materialism, militarism, and racism. Here are some facts about the richest nation on earth, in the 21st century.
• One in six children lives in poverty.
• We still resort to guns and violence rather than the power of non-violence to solve problems.
• In our nation, founded on the truth that all people have the right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, rampant racial and economic disparities in access to quality health care and education combined with zero tolerance laws that criminalize children at younger and younger ages put Black boys born in 2001 at a one in three and Latino boys born the same year at a one in six lifetime risk of being incarcerated.

Thank God that there are organizations like Children’s Defense Fund that are fully committed to caring for, protecting, and advocating on behalf of those who cannot speak, lobby, or vote for themselves: the children. This is of special importance to me, as I head towards ordination to the Episcopal priesthood and, eventually, non-profit work. One of my pastoral themes is “helping those who cannot help themselves.” This is what I want my parishioners to believe in. My faith teaches me that this is what God, through Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, did—and does—for humankind. God helps us in ways in that we will never know, let alone fully understand. One of my prayers for myself is that as I learn more about the various behind-the-scenes work of CDF and work at the office, on both exciting events and mundane, but necessary, things, I will remember why I am doing all this—and for whom I am doing all this.

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