People Who Matter

In high school I was a part of the ECHO Foundation. It is an organization created by Elie Wiesel, meant to spread awareness of human suffering around the world. In the eleventh grade I had to amazing opportunity to go and actually hear Elie Wiesel speak to about three hundred high school students from the Charlotte area. Before we went to see him speak, we read his book, Night.

For those of you who have not read Night, please do. It is a recount of Wiesel's experience surviving in a concentration camp. Elie Wiesel suffered through things that I could barely read. Yet, he lived, and more importantly he shared his story, he started organizations, he fights against the horrors he faced. Hearing him speak was remarkable. His hair splayed across his head, in an fashion quite similar to Einstein. His European accent was thick, although I could understand every word. I remember how he laughed when one of the students asked a really stupid question. I loved that. He didn't pretend like the question was intelligent, or even made sense, he just laughed. Years later I still remember that sensation of inspiration, that momentum that built up inside of me as I listened to him begging us students to make a difference.

Elie Wiesel isn't the only man who made a difference; Nelson Mandela, Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa. They made a difference; they changed the very fabrics of the worlds they have been born into; they rip the seams and created something better.

But you know what? They aren't the only ones. Has anyone ever read Three Cups of Tea? That is another fantastic book where the author, Greg Mortensen, really made a difference by building schools in Pakistan (I got to meet him in high school as well). There are lots of people like Mortensen.

But you know what else? Even people like Mortensen aren't the only ones. I can think of twenty people right now who have dramatically changed my life, just by being examples.

You know what all of these people have in common?
They care about human life. The ones who have really changed the world around them, who have really changed me, care about people. They know, unlike so many others, that when a person dies, anywhere in the world, a ripple runs through. Or when a person suffers unnecessarily whether from hunger on the streets, or starvation in Africa, it matters. They know that people everywhere hurt, and that pain matters.

I think the older I get, the more I know that as well. I'm glad there are people to teach me.

A logo from Elie Wiesel's organization, The Echo Foundation