Dear Share Our Strength and Community
Wealth Partners colleagues
When we left the
office Friday afternoon, wishing one another a good weekend, Paris was the way
it had been for most of our lives, and almost even before we got home it was
another, and will be for much of the rest of our lives.
There are no
words equal to what happened in Paris, but there are actions equal to it –
actions of hope, commitment, faith, and love. You commit such acts every
day. As heavy as my heart is for the people of France, it is heavy for
you too because the Paris attacks were an assault on the idealism you embrace
and embody, on the belief that doing good matters. That belief today, in
the face of inexplicable evil, is even more important than before.
As you know,
restaurants were targeted for many of the attacks. 30 years ago Share Our
Strength singled out restaurants as a new source of support for alleviating
hunger, poverty and despair – places of joy where those engaged in the culinary
community could contribute in a positive way, literally sharing their strength.
As our values are tested, threatened and challenged, the spirit of
sharing strength – here at home and around the world - will be called for
again and again.
Shortly after
the attacks, my dear friend Carolyn Casey sent me a 1968 speech given by Sargent Shriver, John
Kennedy’s brother-in-law who ran the Peace Corps as well as the War on Poverty
for President Johnson. @ http://tinyurl.com/q4bcgkx I
found some solace his words: “Peace is like war: If enough men want it,
enough men can cause it. They can cause peace to happen in a leper ward in
Asia, in a health center in Alabama, on a lonely island in Alaska, in the
Bowery of New York. Each of us has the power to bring peace not only to the
world, but to our hearts. Is peace an impossible goal? A lot of people
tell me it is. But I am reminded of what Unamuno (Spanish philosopher) once
said: "Unless you strive after the impossible, the possible you
achieve will be scarcely worth the effort.”
Billy
