Our political process in American reveals many divisions between people—both imaginary and real. One that began in the last presidential campaign is the supposed division of American society into “makers” and “takers.” I saw these terms emerge from long distance, living in one of the poorest countries in the world.
No one I met in Ethiopia self-righteously trumpets himself or herself as a “self made” person. No Ethiopian ever thinks they have no responsibility beyond their own individual success. Rather, they see themselves as part of a living, nurturing community. If they are fortunate enough to “make” it, everyone expects them to help people (especially in their extended family) who have not made it and maybe never will.
I had many friends raising a brother or sister’s of cousin’s children because their parents had died or (more often) could not support their own children. (Ethiopia has 100,000 AIDS orphans.) In every case they did so gladly. And these others—not only the children, but their parents who could not support them—were never seen as “takers.” They, too, were part of the family.
I had many graduate students who credited someone else with helping them get an education, which is a priceless gift. (They also usually gave God a great deal of credit.) Even if they worked hard and pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps (and practically all did), they inherently knew that those boots came from somewhere else—ultimately, from God. I had the opportunity to meet and get to know some of the most influential religious leaders in the entire nation—they would typically talk about their family, their village. They remembered where they came from.
Most Ethiopians suffer problems Americans will never face in our entire lifetimes. And the reason most Americans will never face them is, in part, that Americans care for each other through government. Social security for a decent life in old age, or government disaster assistance (thousands in Ethiopia are slowly starving due to a multi-year drought) or food stamps (I saw ragged people on the streets every day begging for food, especially the old and disabled)—this help that Americans take for granted is not even dreamed of among my Ethiopian friends.
Here’s an encounter stuck in my memory: At the gym I attended, an Ethiopian trainer took time away from the private client he had with him to show me how to use a weight machine correctly. After I thanked him, he asked if I was an American. Upon hearing I was, he smiled and said (I remember his words clearly): “I was able to go to the US and study kinesiology. So don’t thank me—it was because of what your family did for me that I could help you today.”
Interesting….He was glad to take time away from a paying client to help me because I’m one of the 300 million American “family” that once helped him. I wasn’t a “taker”—we were “family.” It’s inherent in his worldview. What will be the fate of that worldview among us?
As I understand the New Testament, every person on the planet is one of God’s children, and, therefore, my brother or sister. I have a duty to love each and every one of them. It seems theoretical, but I think it is reality. The big question is how do I act on that reality.