Personal Response To Tikkun Olam

As an economically disadvantaged, minority student who ventured out of a small, closed-minded town, I have developed a passion to serve the underserved. Throughout my life, I have been associated with and witnessed the consequences of being a minority. For example, with 1% of my high school identifying

Mahatma Gandhi, the civil rights leader, once said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Ever since the 1900’s, people and the world’s problems have increased since. We’ve gone from wars to assassinations, natural disasters to racism, and from more wars to even more racism. And that’s just in America. Even now, problems still exist, and continue to increase throughout the years. Many people are trying to stop some issues, however not enough people care. Due to worrying about their own safety and social status, rather than helping others that are in the midst of danger and even death. There are many changes needed in this world, but I have two matters I’d like to specifically address.

Foreign aid is something that is provided by donating governments to countries in need, mostly third-world countries. Foreign aid is allocated for two extremely broad categories, economic development and military aid. Under these categories there are specific uses for foreign aid like, health, humanitarian assistance, democratic elections and even protection for forests. There is debate about foreign aid being a waste because of corrupt governments, which gives the United States speculation whether it should continue to provide foreign aid and how much. This was a popular topic in the 2012 election between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. It would be most beneficial to the United States to maintain foreign aid levels while having conditions

Should the United States increase foreign aid? This is a topic that has come up many

Over the course of time in our country, many groups in our society have experienced being set apart from sustainable communities. Among them are the immigrants, the homeless, the African Americans, those with physical or mental disabilities and the Native Americans. According to McIntosh (1988), “Whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that we work to benefit others, this is seen as work which will allow ‘them’ to be more like ‘us’ “ (p. 1). Unquestionably, this was the case back in the nineteenth century when the “White” people thought it

Racism has always played a significant role in people’s life throughout the history of America. The effects of this have always been negative on the minority people. They are facing problems that they should not be facing like other Americans. Poverty When it comes to the topic of poverty, most of us will readily agree that race plays a role in poverty. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of who will step forward to end racism in America. Whereas some are convinced that it will never come to an end, others maintain that poverty can be diminished with the help of government and Americans. Minorities have to deal with the disadvantages that they have because of poverty. It is not their fault that they are in this unfortunate situation. The government is not doing their part in helping them get out of poverty. Moreover, Minority children are getting affected by this negatively. In a country like America, inequality should be nonexistent. It is shameful to see that Americans and the government are not taking any steps to stop this injustice with the minorities. Even though people think that inequality does not exist “[i]n 2000, after a decade of remarkable economic prosperity, the poverty rate among African Americans and Latinos taken together was still 2.6 times greater than that for white Americans” (Jenkins). Even when the country is doing well economically, minorities are still more likely to be in poverty when compared to the whites. There is a

Many skeptics challenge the reasoning for investing so much money into helping so many other countries when that money could instead help us improve internal affairs. After all, foreign aid spending has increased to $50 billion a year today, which could be put towards funding education to ensure that more kids go to college and possibly affecting the innovation of the future(Morris). Giving more than you receive is nice, but when it involves a country 's financial crisis, maybe it 's best if Santa cuts back some of this year 's presents. And although the argument may be valid, lending out a helping hand can create more allies than enemies to help us in return when we need it. In fact, foreign aid only accounts for 0.5 percent of the federal budget (Stearn). Compared to all the other matters at hand that the government is worrying about, the amount of spending put into aiding poorer countries is positive in both a moral aspect and a political aspect.

Almost everyone has heard the famous hymn, “Jesus Loves the Little Children,” but not all understand the true meaning when it says, “Red, and yellow, black, and white, they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.” The moment sin entered into the world, perfection no longer existed. This loss of perfection changed the way humans viewed each other. It made one ethnicity view another ethnicity as inferior, and in doing so, created what people now know of as racism. For centuries, racism has been a part of society, shaping the way humans view each other, but with the aid of Young Women 's Christian Association (YWCA) - Stand Against Racism, racial discrimination and injustice can be eliminated.

Ever had that one friend? The one who tries to help, but no matter how hard he tries, he just aggravates the situation. This friend, Steve, insists he is helping, and those around, too, would support that he is indeed helping. But Steve is actually worsening the circumstances. He is like countries who provide foreign aid to less developed countries. Foreign aid, defined as “the international transfer of capital, goods, or services from a country or international organization for the benefit of the recipient country or its population,” can be military, economic, or humanitarian (“Foreign”). It is often granted to less developed countries in order to evoke government reforms or to stimulate economic growth. However, foreign aid neither elicits government reform, nor does it consistently and reliably stimulate economic growth; therefore, the United States should discontinue providing foreign economic aid.

There are times when aid can be indefinite. The United States of America entered into the Korean War to stop the spread of communism from Northern Korea to Southern Korea, and to defeat the North Korean communist regime. The Korean War began in 1950 it is now 2011 and the United States is still South Korea’s biggest supporter. After the armistice the United States and its allies assisted South Korea in cleaning up the war torn country and gave them aid to rebuild the country and its economy. It has been some time since monetary aid was given to South Korea, but the United States has kept a fully functional military base in South Korea since. The military base is a deterrence to North Korea and their nuclear program as the United States and its allies have a close by base of operations for a retaliatory attack. Another way that the United states and allies give current aid to South Korea is a constant armada of navy ships patrolling the waters around the peninsula. The base is scheduled to be turned over to South Korean forces in 2012 thus ending 62 years of aid in some fashion. 62 years of assistance to the Koreans or any country is a very long time and a very expensive amount of aid. Just the man power equipment and lives

Does American Aid help poverty in foreign countries? No, they don’t spend our wages on things they need to grow their living conditions and economy. Our compensation will not encourage them to become involved in world politics, instead it is just going to teach them to live off of our handouts. What good is a charity if it is not going to help anything? The purpose of America financially benefiting other countries is for them to take the money and help fix their economical issues and make a better livelihood status for themselves. Since it hardly seems like they are going to use our cash to promote their own society, they should be indebted to us and pay our unmitigated promotion. According to Stephen Moore, “There is zero evidence that any

Should America be morally obligated to give foreign aid with such problems within its own borders? According to www.state.gov under the foreign assistance budget tab, the United States is slotted in 2015 for $46.2 billion. That is 1% of the budget. That aid goes to assisting world hunger, helping governments form a democratic government, as well military training and weapons. In a quote by Secretary Kerry (Apr. 8): "When you consider that the American people pay just one penny of every tax dollar for the 46.2 billion in this request ... when it comes to the State Department and USAID, taxpayers are getting an extraordinary return on their investment.” Is it wrong to assist mankind? No. Should we focus first on our own people with the statistics given previously? Yes. Imagine what the citizens of the United States could give to the world if we were well fed leading to better health, formally educated, and had the food security to benefit others across the

The money could also be used for the American poverty, to help poorer people out of their situation and to finance a general school system, with proficient teachers.

U.S should worry about the people in our country before lending a hand in other countries. “US Aid to Africa” I believe lending a hand to the poor, starvation, or any type of medical help can be useful but, Ebola is a serious disease to why many Africans have passed

The USA exercises its foreign policy through financial aid. For example, scarcity relief in North Korea provides not only humanitarian aid but also a base for the development of democratic ideals and bodies.