You know what’s really sad? That it takes a tragedy like 9/11 or Katrina for Americans to “pull together” and help our fellow citizens. Our collective conscience is stirred up by the grizzly and emotionally-charged images scattered across our tv’s, but guess what!? Before the 100-mile-per-hour winds, before the flooding, before the mass panic, there were starving families living in poverty in New Orleans. What was being done? What were YOU doing for them? And that city is not alone. Even small cities in our own state – St. Cloud, Willmar, etc – have families struggling just to make it on their paycheck. Know anyone who’s had to choose between the heating bill and buying groceries? I bet you do, even if you don’t know that about them. Minnesota has one of the smallest percentages of people living in poverty. However, at eight percent, that means nearly one in ten people you meet is struggling. And statistically, the majority of them are women with children. So many of us turn a blind eye because it hurts to see, because we are afraid of it happening to us, because we don’t know what to do. Tragedies like Hurricane Katrina focus our energy and make us feel useful, but it just takes an individual to step up and be useful each day here at home. Be neighborly. Do you know who you live next to? Introduce yourself. Do unto others. There is plenty of “relief effort” needed within miles of your own home. Share some of those cookies you baked. Invite the neighborhood kids over for a game of kickball. Recognize all the ways in which your life is blessed, then try to share those blessings with others. Ashlee Anderson, Paynesville
