21 Vehicles

Our living-room window looks out onto the full length of a cul de sac. If I get up early enough, before most of the other people go to work, I can count 21 cars, SUV's and half-trucks parked in the driveways.

Do you know why these vehicles are parked in the driveways? Sure you do. It's because the two and three car garages are filled with “Stuff.” Because of all the Stuff that these people own but seldom use, there isn't any room for the vehicles. And never mind the garages that are stuffed with Stuff. The city has thousands and thousands or storage units that people rent so they can store the Stuff that their garages can't hold. And this doesn't even count the boats and trailers and RV's that are stored at other storage sites.

We are overflowing with wealth. We are rich beyond the dreams of most people in the world. We're rotting in our riches. And instead of sharing that wealth, we're hoarding it. Instead of sharing that wealth we're telling people in the rest of the world, usually people who don't have white skin, that they shouldn't be having children because, we say, we can't afford for them to have children. 

The smell of spiritual death oozes from our every pour.

Just ask any atheist and s/he will tell you that we're good people. And yet:

. Today, 25,000 children will starve to death.
. Today, millions of children are working in sexual slavery.
. Today AIDS will claim the lives of thousands of children.
. Today the gap between the rich and the poor is growing faster than at any other time in history.
. Today our children are contracting STD’s at a rate that isn’t even matched by adults.
. Today, people are choosing to die in numbers unequalled at any other time in history.
. Today, despair, loneliness, and hopelessness are rampant in all age groups.

. Every year, out of the estimated 30 million slaves in the world, 2.8 million child-slaves are permanently disabled and 30,000 die from injuries incurred during their slave labour.

Ya, we good people who are too busy taking care of our Stuff to care for our neighbours or do anything about the suffering that they face day in and day out.