“IF NOT NOW . . . WHEN?”
In the lifetime of your children?
In your lifetime?
This year?
This day?
Look at Your Hand . . .
You can move it!
…as a caress or a fist; to build up or tear down, to give
or to take.
Always, your hand can make a mistake or correct one.
Or it can do nothing.
So with your heart and your mind, as with your hand. They can serve your need alone …or serve another…or serve no one.
The decision is yours.
This is the wonder, and the challenge, of our lives.
For the harsh fact of our lives is how free we are to do nothing. Or to do the wrong thing: to hurt not only others but ourselves.
Yet the great thing of our lives is how free we are to start again; to find a better path—from whatever wrong turn we or our world may have taken.
We are not caught forever in any error or confusion. The power is ours to move again.
“IF NOT NOW…WHEN?”
Look at Yourself . . .
For whom has the power to move been given, if not for you, so that you can be responsible for meeting your own needs?
You have every right—indeed the obligation—to do so:
—the right to use your heart, your mind and your hand, to advance your standard of living; to enjoy the bless¬ing which today’s world makes possible.
—the right to seek and earn the respect of those around you; to achieve recognition of your talents and your efforts.
And who but you should strive for a better life for your family, a promising future for your children?
“IF I AM NOT FOR MYSELF, WHO WILL BE?”
Look at Your Neighbor . . .
Aren’t his children as dear to him as yours are to you?
Isn’t his self-respect as necessary to his as yours is to you?
And if he is denied the freedom and opportunity to serve his own needs, to fulfill his obligations, to enjoy his rights, what happens to you?
For you are your neighbor’s neighbor.
And it is only together that you can possibly achieve the kind of community you want for yourself, for your own family and for the family of man.
“IF I AM FOR MYSELF ALONE, WHAT AM I?”
Look at the World . . .
Even as we can reach out our hand to give or to take, to build or to tear down, so men everywhere can now easily move their ideas, their values and themselves, to any cor-ner of the earth—to give or to take, to build or to tear down.
Whether as an individual, a family, a community or a nation, we are no longer alone.
We all live in one place.
Thus, there is no longer any such thing as poverty “there.” It is poverty “here.”
There is no such thing as ignorance “there.” It is ignor¬ance “here.”
There is no such thing as oppression “there.” It is op¬pression “here.” Again, this is the wonder and the challenge of our lives.
As we seek wisdom and freedom and sustenance for our¬selves, we can only hope to reach and maintain these goals as we are concerned that others achieve them too . . . creating them together.
For…”If I am not for myself, who will be?
If I am for myself alone, what am I?
If not now, when?” (Ethics of the Fathers 1:14)