{"id":937,"date":"2010-02-21T01:00:18","date_gmt":"2010-02-21T06:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/hungerrumblings\/?p=937"},"modified":"2015-12-03T14:57:16","modified_gmt":"2015-12-03T20:57:16","slug":"people-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/people-first\/","title":{"rendered":"Putting People First"},"content":{"rendered":"

The hungry.\u00a0 Hungry people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you examine the structure of either of these references, you\u2019ll notice that the primary emphasis is on the condition of being hungry.\u00a0 In the case of the hungry<\/strong>, the word \u201cpeople\u201d isn\u2019t even in the realm of consciousness.\u00a0 \u201cThe hungry\u201d serves as a defense mechanism, a way to categorize something that is undesirable and put it on a shelf at a safe distance so that we don\u2019t have to feel a personal connection.\u00a0 \u201cThe hungry\u201d are simply out there\u2026somewhere.\u00a0 Nameless, faceless, and seemingly not even human or at least not deserving enough of a human reference.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo by Paul Jeffrey\/ACT International<\/p><\/div>\n

Hungry people<\/strong>.\u00a0 On the scale of objectification, this is better.\u00a0 At least we are talking about people here, though again the emphasis is not on people but rather the condition of being hungry.\u00a0 People comes last, and so psychologically our emphasis is still on fixing a condition rather than serving someone just like us\u2014same age, same gender, same station in life relatively speaking\u2014who happened to be born in a community or country where there are extremely limited resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s see if we can do better.\u00a0 Okay, here\u2019s one more attempt:\u00a0<\/p>\n

People who are hungry<\/strong>.\u00a0 Simply put, people come first.\u00a0 We\u2019re not trying to help feed a nameless breed of beings known as \u201cthe hungry\u201d (akin to \u201cthe infected\u201d).\u00a0 We\u2019re not trying to serve our neighbors, the \u201chungry people\u201d\u2014still defined by their condition rather than their self-identity as human beings.\u00a0 Rather, we are ministering to people<\/em>\u2014people who happen to be hungry but are people first nonetheless.\u00a0 They are Kennedy Symphorian, a skinny 15-year-old boy I met years ago in Tanzania who had HIV and whose non-traditional family eeked out a meager living and survived on assistance from an organization that received support from ELCA World Hunger dollars.\u00a0 They are the children begging for handouts on the streets of Nicaragua, some of whom work the streets alone during the day while their parent(s) crowd into a tightly packed school bus and ride off to work in a sweatshop.\u00a0 They are nameless strangers we meet on our streets who browse trash cans for food scraps, approach our rolled-up windows at a stoplight (maybe we look at them, maybe not), sleep on a doorstep in 15-degree weather.\u00a0 They are us<\/em> only with fewer resources and a harder way, trying to survive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We cannot afford to talk about people in any way less than the dignified manner all souls should be afforded.\u00a0 We are all people first and foremost.\u00a0 We are\u00a0Christians, Muslims, writers, janitors, men, women, fast-food workers, nurses, crossing guards, students, tailors\u2026we are who we are, defined by our humanity and our relationship to God.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s put people first instead of resorting to comfortable, overused phrases that define people by their condition.\u00a0 Maybe next time you encounter \u201cthe other\u201d\u2014that perfect stranger who asks you for money because she probably really needs it\u2014you\u2019ll ask her name and be able to talk about the time you met Rhonda rather than \u201csome homeless woman.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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