Our Greatest Freedom is Our Freedom to Choose Our Attitude

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On January 22, the World Youth Alliance had the great opportunity to take part in the March for Life in Washington D.C. Despite the snow and the cold, four members of our organization joined thousands of people to defend Life, to defend the dignity of the most vulnerable human being, to defend the right to life of unborn children.

The defense of the dignity of the youngest people is a fundamental cause that has an implication to each one of us. However, there are a lot of people whose dignity is all too often forgotten, I think specifically about the homeless here in New York. As a Swiss citizen living in the countryside I have never been used to see homeless and poor people living in the street but when I arrived in New York, I realised how many people were in that situation. Here in New York, one of the greatest city in the World, thousands of homeless are ignored and rejected every day by society.

A few days ago, just after the impressive snowstorm that touched the East coast I had an interesting human experience with a friend. The streets were full of snow and we were all enjoying the beauty of the moment. We were walking down the street and a homeless man was shouting at people in the street, as we approached we realized that he was simply saying “Good Morning” to the passers-by and as nobody responded or even watched him, he started getting impatient and angry. He finally shouts: “I only say good morning and nobody even answers me, what’s going wrong with all of you?” We then stopped and answered him, we could see his face changing and he became jovial and friendly, he told us “It’s a beautiful day, enjoy it, go in Central Park and build an enormous Snow Man”. He didn’t ask us for any food or money, he was just looking for someone to acknowledge him as a human being.

Nazis intentionally negate the human dignity of Jewish through laws. Western societies still negate human dignity of unborn baby through laws too. But what about the cultural and social negation of human dignity of the poorest of the society that are neither producers nor consumers? Aren’t we also denying their dignity as human beings just because they are an anomaly to our own class systems?

Fighting against the unborn holocaust is right and just but how ridiculous and incoherent it is to serve this cause if we are unable to acknowledge and help the lonely human being living outside on our street.

Written by Cecile Carron, an intern at World Youth Alliance Headquarters from Switzerland. 

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