BlackCommentator.com: Our Africa: The U.S. Moral Obligation To Address Global Hunger By Rev. Derrick Boykin and Bishop Charles E. Blake, BlackCommentator.com Guest Commentators

BlackCommentator.com: Our Africa: The U.S. Moral Obligation To Address Global Hunger By Rev. Derrick Boykin and Bishop Charles E. Blake, BlackCommentator.com Guest Commentators

We’ve heard it said before, “Yes, I know people in poor countries have a lot of needs. But so do many people in this country, and we should take care of them first.” The speakers are rarely people who are unconcerned about poverty and hunger. On the contrary, they are paying attention - and reacting - to the needs they see around them and the more general problems facing Americans. However, they fail to acknowledge that problems overseas also impact us in the United States.

Any particular economic event - say, sharply rising food prices - has very different consequences for people in the United States than it does for people in developing countries. In this country, people may lose their jobs, lose their homes, have to move in with relatives, struggle to put food - especially healthy food - on the table, and face many other hardships. But in the Horn of Africa, people are walking hundreds of miles in search of any available food, with many children and elders dying on the way. Drought and conflict have already killed tens of thousands from southern Somalia alone, while more than 12 million people in the region are at risk.

Outside of the Horn of Africa, even in non-emergency areas, the human toll from hunger, poverty, and lack of access to basic health care is enormous in developing countries. Poor families spend up to 80 percent of their entire incomes on food. So they can’t cope with rising food prices by buying only what’s on sale or eating frozen vegetables instead of fresh. Instead, people simply eat less, period. They reduce portion sizes, eat just a staple grain and nothing else, or skip meals altogether. Children younger than 2 suffer irreversible effects from malnutrition, and both they and their slightly older siblings, up to age 5, are at far greater risk of death than healthy children - whether from starvation, or from diseases such as measles that are often fatal in malnourished children.

The most immediate needs in the Horn of Africa include improving food access and solving urgent health and nutrition problems. Emergency aid is vital right now, but we must also think beyond the current crisis. It is much more cost-effective - in terms of both dollars and human suffering - to invest in building agriculture systems that are sustainable in the long run. The tragedy in Somalia was compounded by a failure to target scarce resources to programs that help families build resilience to disasters such as drought.

The Horn of Africa crisis could have been much worse without programs such as Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program, which helps small farmers diversify their crops, broaden their income sources, create local markets, better manage their water resources, and increase the nutritional content of their families’ diets. Such “country-led” programs were models for Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global program to promote sustainable agriculture, food security, and nutrition. This approach makes the argument that it is preferable to invest a few dollars per person per year to help people become more food secure and resilient in the face of disaster, than to invest hundreds of dollars per person to deliver emergency relief that only lasts three to four months.

Unfortunately, U.S. funding for both longer-term agriculture and nutrition programs and emergency food aid is at risk. Ironically, U.S. foreign aid accounts for less than 1 percent of the budget. Balancing the federal budget will take more than cuts to programs like these.

The Bible tells us to uplift - not demoralize - the “least of these.” We are incredulous that some of our nation’s leaders, including people from the “Bible Belt,” are taking positions on the federal budget without understanding how their decisions impact vulnerable people. We urge our lawmakers to focus instead on protecting assistance programs for hungry and poor people around the world.

For more on the Horn of Africa crisis, visit www.bread.org/hunger/global/eastern-africa-drought/ or www.saveafricaschildren.org.

BlackCommentator.com Guest Commentators Rev. Derrick Boykin serves as associate for African American leadership outreach at Bread for the World. Bishop Charles E. Blake, founder and CEO of Save Africa's Children, is the presiding bishop of the 6.5 million member Church of God in Christ. Click here to contact Rev. Boykin and Bishop Blake.

Male Cheerleader in Texas Kicked Off Squad, Suspended for Gay Kiss Seen on Surveillance Camera: VIDEO

Male Cheerleader in Texas Kicked Off Squad, Suspended for Gay Kiss Seen on Surveillance Camera: VIDEO

How is kissing another man different than kissing a woman? It's not, trust me. Except of course that for those of us who are gay, kissing another man can be a deeply meaningful of friendship and caring. I can't see how a kiss exchanged between two young men is anyone else's business and certainly not cause for discipline.

Remembering Ricky

I just read this article (reposted from NPR) on the Being Latino website which I recommend to everyone.


I love Ricky

- via Luis Clemens/NPR

Desi Arnaz, seen in 1955, was one of the first characters to speak Spanish on English-language television.

Desi Arnaz, seen in 1955, was one of the first characters to speak Spanish on English-language television.

I remember being wowed the first time I heard Spanish spoken on English-language television. It was a 1970s re-run of an I Love Lucy episode. I do not remember what was said. Just that Ricky Ricardo said it en español. And I remember how it made me feel — wondrous, proud, confused.

I was confused because it was disorienting to hear Spanish used on English-language television. As a Cuban-American kid growing up in Miami, I watched English and Spanish-language television but the two languages didn’t overlap on-screen. There was the local newscast and then there was el noticiero local; each in a separate tongue and each with a different worldview.

(Continue reading at NPR.)


My memory of Ricky.

As a Mexican-American kid growing up in south Texas, Ricky Ricardo legitimized my Spanish-speaking home experience. Desi's character on I Love Lucy insisted that Little Ricky would learn to speak Spanish and went so far as to explain how easy it is to learn to read Spanish because it is more phonetic than English - at least to Ricky. It was this simple suggestion that helped me teach myself to read Spanish and I will always credit Desi Arnaz for helping me to be proud of my Spanish.

Bread for the Journey

Follow the link to watch a short story told at Church of the Pilgrims in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 25th, 2011 as part of the Bread for the Journey dialogue series in worship.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling: Families in Texas are Struggling

(Note: reposted from Bread Blog)

My grandfather used to say, “It’s never as easy as it looks,” prompting me to rethink a problem or look at the big picture. This is good advice for families trying to make ends meet, and surely it is good advice for Congress as well. Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) is serving as co-chair of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (or Super Committee) to look at ways to reduce our nation’s deficit. The Super Committee has much latitude and can make recommendations on anything. They could raise additional taxes; make more spending cuts; cut defense spending; let tax cuts for wealthy Americans expire; or make changes to anything else in the federal budget.

Ferrell Foster of Eustace, TX, who works for the Baptist General Convention of Texas as associate director of Texas Baptists’ Advocacy/Care Center recently told me that, "the United States is not going to balance its budget by cutting the aid it provides for overseas hunger relief and poverty alleviation. These dollars are small potatoes for the U.S. budget, but they are vitally important to these international efforts. Many of these funds also have a positive impact back home in the American economy because they are often used to purchase American commodities and services.”

He also said, "Many of us are fiscal conservatives who believe that a government should live within its financial means. That conservatism, however, is mixed with a compassion for those who need help in lifting themselves out of poverty. George W. Bush called it ‘compassionate conservatism.’”

It would be easy to just make across-the-board cuts evenly across the budget so that all programs take the same size hit, but the budget is not only our blueprint for spending—it is a moral document that says who we are by what we pay for. Right now, 17.6 percent of households in Texas’s 5th congressional district struggled to put food on the table in 2010 (compared to 14.6 percent nation-wide). Also, more than one in seven people in the 5th district, including nearly one in four children (or almost 25 percent) live below the poverty line, which is $22,113 for a family of four.

We have a moral obligation to protect the most vulnerable among us. Join me in asking Rep. Hensarling to form a circle of protection around programs that help hungry and poor people in our district, throughout the country and around the world. Call Rep. Hensarling at 1-800-826-3688 .

Marco Grimaldo is a Bread for the World regional organizer who serves Texas.

Official photo of Rep. Jeb Hensarling.

Remembering César Chávez

“I undertook the fast because my heart was filled with grief and pain for the sufferings of farm workers. The fast was first for me and then for all of us in the union. It was a fast for nonviolence and a call to sacrifice.”—César Chávez, March 10, 1968

César Chávez was the president and founder of the United Farm Workers Union and persists as the iconic hero of Latinos in the United States. I knew him when I was a boy and later as a college student. He was already a legend and my hero when I served as his driver/companion for a week in 1988.

César fasted several times in his life—not just to call attention to suffering, but also to do penance and atone for his own failings and to show trust in God. I fasted for one day in 1988 when other students at Texas State took turns fasting to be in solidarity with César.

Today, I am fasting (day four) as a way to live out my faith and show my trust in God, whom I believe can and will end hunger in the world. Like César, I believe God will cure my heart and touch the hearts of others so that together we can call our nation to care for hungry and poor people.

Today is César Chávez Day in communities throughout the United States, and I am proud to pay homage to my hero by continuing my fast along with thousands of Bread for the World members and others. (visit Bread’s website to learn more).

Long before President Obama made these words popular, César taught us to proclaim, Sí se puede—yes, we can. And so I say to you, Sí se puede—with God’s help, we can end hunger.

A very special birthday...

I confess to being far too fond of the History Channel and sitting home with the flu makes the T.V. all the more my friend. All week the History Channel has reminded me that Feb. 6th would be the 100th birthday of Ronald Regan. This is something that I would just as soon not give a second thought to, but for the lives of two important people that so shaped who I am today. My father, Pedro Grimaldo and my great aunt Amanda Villanueva Hernandez, both of who passed away some years ago and also shared Feb. 6th as their birthday.

Amanda and her sister Timotea, along with my grandmother Isabel were my caretakers throughout my childhood while my parents worked. However poor we were, I certainly didn't know it. I had every thing I ever wanted just for the asking - fresh pealed fruit, Mexican pastries, tortillas (corn and flour) made daily. Amanda was the youngest of three and in some ways, possibly the strongest. I always knew that in a jam, even in trouble with my parents, I could count on her to save me and stand between me and anything bad. As I grew older I realized that she was not especially nice to others, maybe even unyielding and sometimes mean. When my grandmother married into the family Amanda was jealous of her older brother and made things difficult for them but as I learned of this, I realized that I knew why. For Amanda it was all about loyalty and no one would stand between her and whomever she loved. I thank God that my grandmother Isabel was perhaps stronger still than Amanda because that left me with a legacy of strong, powerfully loyal women to guide my life. I can't imagine a more firm foundation.

My father would be 70 this year and I miss him very much. He was fun and often silly when he was with family. Now I try to be silly enough for my nephews and nieces so that they will know a little of Grandpa Pete.

As a kid, I always wished dad were home more. He had directed a United Methodist Community Center and at one point a large community action agency in south Texas. As I grew older I spent more time with dad at his job and saw what he was doing and why it mattered so much to him. Once I was on my own, he would occasionally try to rope me into one initiative or another or to get my help with a grant proposal he was preparing. He saw things in me that I didn't see in myself.

Dad was shaped powerfully by his grandfather and he made sure that I had the same experience with my grandparents. I can never thank him enough for this. He wanted me to learn from my mom's dad (also named Pedro)about hard work and protecting family at all costs. My father's parents were divorced and he was raised by his aunt and uncle Guadalupe and Jose Angel Hernandez, a Presbyterian minister. Dad was always somewhat undisciplined but he wanted me to learn from his parents what he lacked and so my sister and I spent more time that we might have chosen for ourselves, with our grandparents in Austin. On the other hand, I am still a Presbyterian and although it has been years since I was ordained to serve as an elder, I still try to honor my vows and serve God as best I can.

Service to others, loyalty, strength in the face of poverty and difficulties, love, honor and respect are among the things that I learned from my father, Pedro Grimaldo and my aunt, Amanda Villanueva Hernandez. May God bless them both.