April 26, 2007

• The Future is Here

  EDIT ADD 2: American Idol’s TV special last night “Idol Gives Back” has now raised over 60 million dollars (and counting). It’s amazing…and I totally called it last night, too–as soon as Secrest announced that they had raised 30 million at the end of the show, I said outloud “It’ll be double that tomorrow”. I’m awesome…

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  EDIT ADD: Here’s my iMix #4. It’s perhaps the best one yet–one of the songs is free this week, so you might as well get that one (and it’s a GREAT one, too…).
  

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  Social Justice
  
  We.
  for the most part.
  are failing.

  I have been struck in the past year or more by the increasing attention given to social justice in our world. I don’t think it’s because I’m working at a college (where social justice is a HUGE front-burner topic) or because we moved back to Los Angeles. Also-I don’t think it’s because it’s always been this way and I just haven’t noticed it…I’m talking about a paradigm shift of our culture in dynamic proportion. Bono and one.org, Angelia Jolie, Rick Warren & his P.E.A.C.E. plan, the InspiRED collection, Ethos Water, Idol Gives Back…and a zillion more people and organizations that are FINALLY doing what the rich and affluent should be doing–giving to the poor and caring for those in need. It’s all around us, and the opportunities to get involved are endless.

  I think in ten or twenty years we will look back on the decade of the 2000′s and say this was the decade where the world changed. This was the time in history that people starting looking outside of themselves and giving to help those stricken with disease and poverty. I bet if I talked to 500 students at APU about what was important to them, 499 of them would talk about some aspect of social injustice and what they plan to do about it. I mean, these kids are traveling around the world building schools and hospitals–giving medicine and running water to communities that are desperate for the crap we throw away in our trash cans and complain that we have too much of. It’s completely ridiculous. How is it that America is using up 2/3 of the world’s natural resources? It’s because we have money. We’re buying it and importing it…

  Thank God for those that are using their fame and wealth to fight social injustice. This isn’t going away, and I think it’s only going to become more of an important issue in the lives of our young people—the ones that are our future–these are the guys and girls that care what you think about the 30,000 homeless people in the city of West Covina, or the dying AIDS victims in Africa. They are the ones that are saying “Hey, rather than spending $5,000 on a new in-ear personal monitoring system, why don’t you buy food and water for people dying of starvation…” (Hey–that’s a true story, btw–happened to me a few months ago).

  I was just incredibly struck tonight by the wonderful fact that the biggest TV show on the planet, teamed up with some of the biggest celebrities on the planet, were able to come together in the name of GIVING back. By the end of the show they had raised 30 million dollars–a number I’m sure will grow by tomorrow morning.

  What are we doing? 

  Word up church–what are YOU doing about it?
  Are you talking about social justice at all? Are you doing anything in your communities or around the world to help those afflicted by social injustice?
  If not, you really don’t have a great lookin’ future…I’m just saying…

  • 2:16 am
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