The Socially Active Trend

It seems to me that being an advocate for the poor or a socially active person is becoming more and more trendy these days in America. You can find socially and politically active young people on university campuses all across the country who are calling for social change. People are expressing their discontentment with what are very real social injustices. There are more and more groups forming that get together for weekly "pot-luck dinners" to discuss these things. In the aftermath of "Katrina" I expect more and more people will be verbally expressing their anger and discontentment over the social injustices in which poor face, and that these advocates for the poor will become more visible then they already are.

I love that this is happening, however I do sometimes find myself getting a bit annoyed by some of these socially active types. My concern is that many of these people are involved in social justice issues simply because it has become a trendy thing amongst certain groups of people. Furthermore, it seems like not to many people are truly willing to "put their money where their mouth is" and prophetically act out the scene in which they are describing.

It is one thing to go to a three day conference on social justice issues, but it is an all together separate thing to take the much more costly path of voluntarily re-locating oneself to live among the poor (who were without a doubt being discussed at the conference) in inner-city America (or elsewhere in the world) for the next five, ten, fifteen or forty years.

It is one thing to verbally speak out against the inequalities that the poor face in regards to education and health care but it is an all together separate thing to give up a higher paying and more prestigious job to go and teach in a run-down under-funded inner-city public school, or to start and operate a health care clinic for the poor when you could be making six figures as a doctor in nice suburban hospital.

I have some friends who most people would label "raging liberals," and although I agree with them on several issues that revolve around fighting poverty, social injustices, etc., I do find myself sometimes getting annoyed by the apparent lack of action that these let's fight social injustice types seem to be willing to put forth.

It seems that nowadays many people are game for advocacy work, but few are game for taking the much more costly paths. In my opinion a reason for this is because of how trendy it has become to wear a T-shirt with an icon of Che Guevara's face on it, go to a rally, write some letters to Senators and then return back home until the next one roles around in six months. If you are going to do that, I would encourage you to at least go out and buy a good book (and read it!) on Ernesto "Che" Guevara so you actually know a bit about his life and who he was instead of just thinking that he was some cool countercultural dude who was fighting against - you know man - against like, like, stuff...