Get Up Stand Up

I'm a middle-class white kid with a decent-paying part-time job and an enrollment at a satellite campus for one of the top 50 universities in the country.

I'd like to be politically active, but I feel everything I might do is hypocritical. Tutor kids in bad neighborhoods, then let them go home to abusive or neglectful homes while I relax in my nice single house. Make a meal for homeless people, then leave them behind to miss their next handful of meals while I eat plenty (and I mean plenty). Work for AIDS awareness, but forget about all the other life-threatening diseases out there. I just can't do right.

I have my daily routine, where the biggest injustice I face is possibly earning less than I should for a tough job, or taking a class that's way too hard for a Gen Ed. But there are other people out there who don't even have jobs as good as mine, or don't even have the benefit of a good education. I can complain about the price of gas or the small inconvenience of too much traffic, when most people in the world don't even drive a car.

I feel bad when I listen to Bob Marley's "Get Up Stand Up," because hell yeah, I want to stand up for my rights. But what right do I have to stand up when most people can't get off the ground?

I hate putting things in perspective. Sometimes I think it would be so much easier to become a Republican.