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Priority in life should be to
lift the burden of others By Robert Walker, The Olympian September 5, 2003 In
our country, funds are in short supply for programs not associated with
military defense or pre-emptive wars and their aftermath.
Non-Hodgkin's
lymphoma attacked her in 1995. Aided by a creative oncologist and
medicinal therapy, a six-year remission followed the initial bout. It could not last.
Like the stealthy crab whose Latin name is "cancer," the culprit
had lurked in the shadows waiting to strike again. This time there was
no medical miracle. Unashamed tears flowed frequently as I witnessed
Mardy's inexorable journey to death, culminating July 7, five days past
her 69th birthday. Many have assured me
that Mardy is "in a better place." Let it be so, but let not
that belief block OUR efforts to make this world a better place. It disturbs me that
instead of championing an interdependent and global community in which the
highest honor is to lighten each other's burdens, many leaders backed by
avid followers wreak destruction and death. In our country,
funds are in short supply for programs not associated with military
defense or pre-emptive wars and their aftermath. Consequently, programs
such as research into the causes and cures of diseases must depend on
fund-raisers and memorial gifts. Recently, a U.S.
senator reminded his colleagues that the federal budget deficit is at an
all-time high. Were it not for the government's borrowing of surplus
Social Security and Medicare trust-fund dollars, the deficit would be much
larger. The senator cited
the Bush tax cut as the single largest cause of the imbalance. Increased
federal spending explains only 26 percent of the shortfall. Using Bush
administration figures, the senator said 76 percent of that increase is
for military purposes. The costs of homeland defense, rebuilding New York
and subsidies to airlines because of the Sept. 11, 2001, disaster explain
24 percent of the excessive spending. Unaccountably, not
factored into the deficit is the unbudgeted $5 billion per month cost of
occupying Afghanistan and Iraq. What might our world
be if a policy of mutual care were in place, uniting us as human beings in
tune with our environment, different though we all are? And what victories
over cancer and other diseases might result from spending $1 billion per
month on medical research? In the course of my
life, I have received innumerable and priceless gifts. The greatest of
these is my birth, but equal to it is the gift of Mardy in her
unrestricted love for me. That unconditional
grace freed me not only to love Mardy, but also to cherish others and
myself equally well. As the New Testament letter of John has it, we love
because we are first loved. In our life
journeys, Mardy and I tried -- not always successfully -- to apply the
love ethic to everyone, deserved or not. Not a few derided us as
bleeding-heart liberals. Interestingly, Mardy's favorite flowering plant
was the Bleeding Heart. May the likes of
Mardy increase. Robert
Walker, a retired United Methodist minister, lives with losses of eyesight
and hearing and is a member of The Olympian's Diversity Panel. Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging |
