Charity for Others Did you ever have a day when you got out of bed and thought it was a different day. It seems as we get older this is one of the problems we could have. Old age comes to all of us if we are lucky. That is why when we get sick in our old age, we should thank God we made it to that age and didn’t get the same disease when we were a lot younger. There are a lot of things many of us should be thankful for but aren’t. There are some terrible things which happen to some young people. Yes, these things might happen to any one of us at any age, but it is far more terrible the younger a person is. That is why one of my all-time heroes is Danny Thomas. He was extremely successful as an actor, comedian, singer and was just loaded with talent. He was also very religious. One of the things which really bothered him was the fact some young children get cancer. There is nothing sadder than seeing a young child with that disease. Thomas recognized the fact and poured millions of dollars into the Saint Jude Children’s Hospital. He started out with one hospital and this has grown into eight. Saint Jude charges no money to treat children and even the money to travel there is paid and parents are given free room and board. I am sure there is a special place in heaven for Danny. We hear about heroes in our military almost every day. One marine was in Vietnam. He was in a foxhole with two other marines, one of which was wounded. An enemy machine gun had them pinned down, but the marine was determined to attack it. As he began to stand up a grenade came into the foxhole. He managed to toss it back at the enemy before it exploded. A second grenade came in and there wasn’t time to throw this one back so he threw his body on top of the explosive and it seems like seconds were hours, but the grenade never exploded. He picked it up and flung it out into the river where it blew up on contact. Could this have been a case of divine intervention? There are plenty of ultra-rich people who donate huge sums to charity and this is a good thing, but it is not the widow in the bible who gave here last pence. That was charity that really meant something. I don’t expect people to do that however, because we have to live, and to live, we need money. We should however think about what we can do after taking care of our families to help other less fortunate than us or sickly. Sometimes charity can be hard to perform as in the case of the marine I sited above. Yes, what he did was indeed a charitable act and there are plenty of other cases where military people have been willing to give up their lives to protect a comrade. There are many stories of heroic acts in World War II which were aimed at saving the Jews from the Nazis. When we were fighting the Japanese in World War II, we never suspected any of the Japanese at the time cared about other human beings. What we found out was there was a Japanese diplomat who put his life on the line to do just that. His name was Chiune Sugihara and was Vice Consul for Japan in Lithuania. As unbelievable as this sounds, he saved 6,000 Jews by issuing visas to them so they could travel to Japan in safety. He had risked everything. A Swedish citizen named Raoul Wallenberg was stationed in Hungary during World War II. He did everything humanly possible to save Jews during the Holocaust and was able to issue enough fake passports which allowed over 100,000 Jews to escape. Father Hugh O’Flaherty was a priest. He was stationed in Rome. He was able to stash allied soldiers and Jews in many different places to hide them from the Italians and Nazis. It has been calculated he assisted about 4,000 people. There are many others I could mention, but I think you get the idea. These people were putting their lives on the line to help their fellow man. There is a fact in life and it is a sad one. When one person tries to save others, they don’t always succeed and even if they do, sometimes they die. A student saw a boy caught in the current at a beach. It was one of those rip currents which pulls so hard you probably would not be able to swim against it. I got caught in one once when I was young and strong and was barely able to get back to the beach. Anyway, the student jumped into the water without hesitation trying to save the boy. He didn’t succeed and both he and the boy drowned. One of the greatest exhibitions of bravery and the will to save others occurred on September 11, 2001. When hundreds of firemen and police rushed into the Twin Towers in New York City while everyone else was trying to get away. They braved the flames and heat trying to climb as high as they could without any regard for the danger. We all know what happened to many of them. The buildings came down and 343 firefighters and many police and others who were trying to help died. These brave people should never be forgotten. Who could ever forget those images of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station disaster? At the time it was the worst nuclear disaster in history and might still be. I only question this because of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Station disaster which might be even worse. Remember those pictures of volunteer workers rushing there and trying to quell the meltdown? These people knew they were getting irradiated. The estimates for death both immediate and long term range from 4,000 to 60,000. No one is sure about the numbers. It takes a special kind of person to go to a job he or she knows will kill them so they can protect others. This kind of charity is hard to come by and truthfully, I don’t believe anyone knows if they are capable of it until the time where it is needed arises. It seems you just do it mostly without thinking because you have the desire to save your fellow man, which is stronger than the fear you might feel.
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