Questions, Relationships

In the news yesterday was a piece concerning where our American tax dollars were going, since Obamacare was costing an incredible amount beyond what was projected (now 1/6th of our economy!!).  Displayed was a list of foreign countries and how many billions of American tax dollars, yours and mine, foreign aid, was sent to each one.  I suspected but was not certain that we were sending megabucks to countries such as Libya, Iraq, and Sudan, countries whose governments were working against our country - you and me, but also against their own people.  Listed at the top was Afghanistan, where even there, their government does not welcome us with open arms (they do, however, readily accept our dollars).

So, I pondered, why don't we just let these countries kill off each other?  We don't seem to be able to stop them anyway.  What are our dollars buying us, besides oil, which we may not need from them much longer?  Will any of them ever go completely democratic?

The answers are complicated.  Sometimes our dollars may only just keep the situation in these countries from getting worse.  I learned a lot about Afghanistan due to my nephew serving there, then tragically getting killed by an IED in 2008.  One thing that disturbed me was that our forces had to respect that the farmers had to be protected and allowed to grow the heroin poppies which ultimately would end up in the U.S.A.  Otherwise, the bully Taliban would immediately take over.

What good are the U.S. dollars doing?  One thing may be that we are standing up for decency and democracy.  We are the beacon of HOPE for people all over the world!  We are also standing up for Christianity and tolerance of all religions all over the world!  This is no small thing.  This is the way of responsibility and the way of love.

What can you and I personally do to foster this way of love, tolerance, and freedom?  The BEST WAY is with our one-to-one relationships with people of foreign background.  In my travel I have found that not only my foreign relatives, but the the ordinary shopkeepers, taxi drivers, and hotel personnel, by and large, LOVE all things American!  They envy our freedom, even though we have problems.  The young people, especially, LOVE our culture.

It goes without saying, that we can also pray for religious freedom and democracy everywhere.  We're all in this together.  Here's a short prayer, "Lord God, our strength and salvation, put us in the flame of your love and make our love for you grow to a perfect love which reaches to our neighbor" (The Liturgy of the Hours, 1975, Vol. I, p. 736).  God loves each and every person in the world!  What other ideas do you have?