On Faith
THE REV. FRANK CHONG
Saturday, April 21, 2001
FORMER SURGEON GENERAL Antonia Novella once said that those who are advocates for the poor and underserved have three more commandments that we must follow: The other commandments
Thou shalt not be a victim.
Thou shalt not be a perpetrator.
Thou shalt not be a bystander.
Are there ways in which we can intentionally share our abundance and work for peace? Can we develop intentional partnerships? How do we match our assets with those of others? How do we work for the forgotten people, places and causes? How do we share our time, talent and treasure?
I believe that we can, and we can start right now. If everyone joined only one of three groups, we could start to share our abundance, and perhaps we will see peace in our time.
1. "The Give Me 5 Club." Each month, give five hours of volunteer work to your church, a community organization, a hospital or clinic or some other helping agency in our community. Pledge 5 percent of your abundance to charity. "Give Five" of something every day -- a smile, a thank you, a hello, a handshake, a pat on the back. Give five minutes of undivided attention to someone. I wonder how different history would be if someone had said to Lee Harvey Oswald, "Give me five minutes of your time and I'll buy you lunch, and then we can watch the president drive by."
2. "The 80 Percent Club." There are those who give 100 percent of their energy to a community cause but are not disappointed if they only reach 80 percent of their goal. Too many of us quit when we don't win 100 percent of the time. In health and human services, you know that you can never be satisfied if you don't get 100 percent, but you are never disappointed if you get 80 percent of what you wanted. Too many of us are all or nothing and give up too soon.
3. "The Giraffes Club" is made up of those willing to stick their necks out. At the moment there is a lot of confusion about community priorities and budgets and essential and nonessential work. If no one sticks their necks out, then the weakest and least able to defend themselves -- the mentally ill, the poor, the elderly, the young, the sick, the disabled and those in prison -- will lose by default.
We need people who will stick their necks out and say that those programs that work with people who have the most difficulty living one day at a time are "essential programs."
Just as we don't cut out the eighth grade when the education budget needs to be trimmed, so it must be with health and human services. We are asked to "Pay It Forward ... Not Pay It Back."
Do things for others that they cannot do for themselves -- not as payment for things that were done, but as an effort to see that things are done. If not us, who? If not now, when?
Frank Chong is executive director of the Waikiki Health Center.
He can be reached by e-mail at: frank.chong@waikikihealthcenter.org
or fchong@iav.com
