UI 048: Courage and CURE Versus Cowardice and Evil

This file is a work by emijrp. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

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If pain were water the world would drown. ~ Dennis Prager

Ever since I learned of CURE International from Dennis Prager, they have become one of my favored charities.  I am one of those people who has a hard time giving charity, and deciding what is the best way to give my seemingly small amounts to give.  Who will make my dollar go the furthest?  Who will do the most good with it?  Today I have several to choose from who make that list. And among the top of the list is CURE. CURE International is not only a good charity (meaning they actually make a tremendous amount of each dollar go a long way toward doing good for those you wish to help), they are a COURAGEOUS charity.  They go to parts of the world where others fear to enter.  They don't just go there, they build hospitals and stay there so they can treat the local people and train the local doctors so as to further there outreach and aid.  It is a brilliantly run organization, and it is no surprise that they are a Christian charity.  I love my Jewish charities, but let me just say for the sake of being open and honest... we could learn a lot from charities like CURE.  As a religious Jew, I have to say that this Christian charity CURE is undoubtedly doing the Lord's work, and doing Kiddush Hashem (sanctifying God's name here on Earth.) So what does all that have to do with it being an ultimate issue? The ultimate issue is this:  It's the issue of courage versus cowardice.  Courage is among the most powerful, needed, and unfortunately rare traits in humans.  Courage is the act of doing what is good and right in the eyes of God despite fears, pain, and/or futility.  Courage is a tragically rare human character trait, and yet it is the most necessary trait for goodness to triumph over evil. So lets talk about evil.  Evil has an exponentially more powerful affect in the world than good.  One act of evil seeming counters thousands of act of goodness.  Think about it.  Whether you think about in a macro-global perspective or micro-personal perspective, despite all the good that happens one horrendous act of evil seems to blanket our perspective in darkness. For example in our personal lives, if an otherwise kind and trusting person is suddenly the subject of a violent crime and robbed or worse... Their trusting and kindness will be tainted by that single act.  They often will carry that experience with them and look at the world and strangers differently.  Circumstances that were never threatening before, now become sources of fear and anxiety. Or in the more macro arena... Thousands of planes safely fly our skies and departures and arrive at their destinations remarkably on time and without incident.  But after 9/11, we completely altered our the way we traveled and how we perceived the safety of air travel.  The act of some Muslims, altered the perspective many had for all Muslims. My point is simply to show how powerful evil actions are. I just learned of one such action, and it was not only against innocent people... but even worse courageous people. Just earlier this week 3 people (a doctor, and a father and his son) were murdered at a CURE international hospital. Here is the story from NBC's Today Show:

Here's the deal: Because this one man acted evil and murder three people of courage, it will highly likely have the consequence of those in need of care in Afghanistan not getting the care the would have otherwise received.  One act of evil impacts numerous acts of goodness. and the other part of this equation that is an ultimate issue... While courage is necessary to combat evil, cowardice necessarily enables evil.  And I am ashamed at the cowardice the leadership of our country.  I don't mean this to be political (and it really is not so much a democrat vs. republican debate anymore... as the libertarian movement in the republican party has the same foreign policy regarding military action as do those on the left in the democratic party.)  But that our President has ordered the withdrawal of our troops in these middle east conflicts is mind numbing... actually it's sickening. It should be no shock to anyone that as we lose our influence in these areas of the world unjust violence will increase dramatically.  And to be clear, I am by no means whatsoever saying our troops are acting cowardice - NO! That is not to be inferred at all.  However, I am explicitly stating that our federal government's leaders are acting with cowardice and are necessarily enabling the evil such as the murder of these three courageous Americans in Afganistan. I love and yearn of acts of courage... and I equally hate and am disgusted by acts of cowardice. If you want to do something in opposition to the evil and cowardice then you can join me in donating to CURE.  I get nothing for this.  I just want to do whatever I can to help the courageous in any way I can, and this is one.  Tell a friend.  Do what you can. We are all in this together, and we have the freedom to choose how we respond to these events.  You can act on behalf of the good and courageous, or you can be act on behalf of the evil and do nothing, say nothing, and enable through cowardice. Again, a single act of evil requires exponentially more acts of goodness to battle it.  So do what is good and right in the eyes of God, and together we can help burn the evil from our midst. Click Here to Donate to CURE.