World Refugee Day

CNN.com - No end in sight for Africa's suffering masses - Jun 20, 2006 -- I feel like we need to keep talking about this stuff because it's much bigger than rising gas prices and who we're most likely to vote for in 2008. This article is really good, completely heartfelt by a man who's been traveling and reporting from Africa for a long time. Everything inside me revolts at the thought of things he's describing as normal life for many people in Africa. I don't understand Africa. I know there is a long and complicated history. I know it's so overwhelming for me to think about. So I ended up praying for one person instead. I don't know that one person -- it may be a child, a woman, a man or even one of the people causing the problem. I don't know them. I can't know them! My life is way too different in so many ways to be able to think of specific ways to pray for them. So I don't. Instead I pray for any one person at any one time to feel God with them and to somehow make it through not only physically but mentally and spiritually as well. If they have to live in a refugee camp for their own protection, let them feel love from somewhere, let them feel worthy of living and human again.

I have to admit that initially my impressions of Angelina Jolie were negative. She's reported to be really "weird." But honestly? I don't really care anymore. She's famous and uses that fame to bring attention to people who would otherwise go unnoticed. No matter how much I do or don't like her? I can't deny that she is able to do something that a lot of other, lesser known people can do. She also seems to actually live out her words by giving 1/3 of her income to charities for refugees. 1/3 of her income is a lot. A lot. That's a lot of money to part with. And I'll happily say that I'm happy that she does it. Her personal life doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. I don't know her personally and will never get 100% of the truth about her life and I don't care. The person who may be able to live a few more days because of money that made it to them through a donation she made? Probable doesn't care what the crap she does with her spare time. So I say, "Yay, Angelina Jolie. You may be overexposed and kind of creepy yet strangely beautiful but at least you're aware of a problem that you are uniquely qualified, by your over-inflated income, to contribute in a way that most of the world cannot. Keep it up."