Friday night my class had an overnight ethics retreat. 'Is this an oxymoron or a test?' I wondered to myself before the events began. It was a really nice moment to think about and share with each other why we are here, studying to be development professionals (or development practitioners, or developmentalists), as well as an opportunity to discuss various ethical concerns we will face in our careers.
So, why am I here? I thought about my involvement with the LGBT(QQIA) community as an apt metaphor for why I care about poor people. You can't care about people whom you don't know or haven't seen. It's easier to condemn 'the gays' as an entire group when you don't know any personally, but more difficult to make the argument against marriage equality when you're talking about Luke or Michael or Justin, actual people you actually know and love. I wrote a paper as an undergraduate about same sex marriage and came to the conclusion (9 years ago, man I'm getting old!) that the civil institution of marriage, with all the rights and responsibilities that go with it, should be open and available to any two consenting adults crazy enough to sign up for it, no matter what their sex or gender or sexual orientation. It's taking some people longer to figure this out, but the tide of history is in our favor, and soon same sex couples will be able to get married in Oregon and all over the country.
Similarly, I can't un-see what I saw while in the Peace Corps in Niger and Malawi. There are very poor people in this world, and in these days of so much opportunity, so much wealth, so much technology, so much growth, it should be absolutely appalling to everyone that some children still die of diarrhea and some people still die of malaria and malnutrition. Before joining the Peace Corps I was planning on going to graduate school for international relations, imagining a career in diplomacy. Now, I can't imagine devoting my life to anything other than poverty reduction, though exactly where and how, in what organizations and in which capacities I will be doing that work remains to be seen.
In closing, here's the quote that will define the arc of my career, (from a fellow Oregonian no less!):
"We stand by as children starve by the millions because we lack the will to eliminate hunger. Yet we have found the will to develop missiles capable of flying over the polar cap and landing within a few feet of their target. This is not innovation. It is a profound distortion of humanity's purpose on earth." -Mark Hatfield
So, why am I here? I thought about my involvement with the LGBT(QQIA) community as an apt metaphor for why I care about poor people. You can't care about people whom you don't know or haven't seen. It's easier to condemn 'the gays' as an entire group when you don't know any personally, but more difficult to make the argument against marriage equality when you're talking about Luke or Michael or Justin, actual people you actually know and love. I wrote a paper as an undergraduate about same sex marriage and came to the conclusion (9 years ago, man I'm getting old!) that the civil institution of marriage, with all the rights and responsibilities that go with it, should be open and available to any two consenting adults crazy enough to sign up for it, no matter what their sex or gender or sexual orientation. It's taking some people longer to figure this out, but the tide of history is in our favor, and soon same sex couples will be able to get married in Oregon and all over the country.
Similarly, I can't un-see what I saw while in the Peace Corps in Niger and Malawi. There are very poor people in this world, and in these days of so much opportunity, so much wealth, so much technology, so much growth, it should be absolutely appalling to everyone that some children still die of diarrhea and some people still die of malaria and malnutrition. Before joining the Peace Corps I was planning on going to graduate school for international relations, imagining a career in diplomacy. Now, I can't imagine devoting my life to anything other than poverty reduction, though exactly where and how, in what organizations and in which capacities I will be doing that work remains to be seen.
In closing, here's the quote that will define the arc of my career, (from a fellow Oregonian no less!):
"We stand by as children starve by the millions because we lack the will to eliminate hunger. Yet we have found the will to develop missiles capable of flying over the polar cap and landing within a few feet of their target. This is not innovation. It is a profound distortion of humanity's purpose on earth." -Mark Hatfield
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