There comes a point in every foreign language class when English becomes taboo.  Though difficult at first, eventually your comprehension expands until you reach the point that you can read and watch news stories in that language. That is how I found out about Morocco.

According to an article we read in class, a sixteen year old girl had committed suicide after being forced to marry her rapist.  In that country, if a minor was raped, the rapist would  have to marry the victim in order to forego going to jail.

Naturally, everyone in my class was disgusted when they heard the news.  Personally, I wasn’t entirely confident in my translation skills. When I got home, I researched the problem a bit more, and sure enough, I had understood what I read in that French class. Apparently, parents and judges would encourage the marriage to preserve the family’s honor.  Books such as Burned Alive recount the horrors of compromising a family’s honor.

But I read that book nearly three years ago. And I have done nothing about it.

As you go through this “Issue” Issue, it can be very easy to reach the conclusion that there is a lot of bad in the world and something should be done about it. Eventually all of the world’s issues just morph into one nebulous problem, clouding out the faces of the individuals.

We can turn off the TV, close the laptop, or put down that newspaper and go on about our normal routine. Yet, when we want to feel bad for that one thing in that one place that this one friend said, we can turn on that switch and be a good, sympathetic person. But then we drive by Starbucks and  completely change our mindset because we remember how much we are craving that chai tea latte.

Maybe it’s a good thing that we can separate our empathy for others and our own lives into two different categories. After all, who wants to meditate on those things all the time?

The way we view world issues is the same as some view education.  It follows an old quote by Confucius that says, “Tell me, and I will forget.  Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand.”

Last semester, the English classes wrote letters to children in India. These past few weeks, some people have actually received responses from the children. My sister was fortunate enough to receive two.

When she heard that she had a response, she was in disbelief, claiming that she had never wrote any. “You’re probably thinking of the other Madi,” she told the teacher. But sure enough, they were her letters, and as she pored over those notes, she remembered each of the questions she had asked the girls. My family passed the letters around, reading what they had written and admiring the pretty pictures that they had drawn in the background. In the end, Madi decided, “I’m going to see if I can write them back.”

Once somebody becomes involved in the cause, it is difficult to dismiss those people.  Often times, the focus is placed on the problems. It can be easy to make a laundry list of things that are wrong with world, but what good is that? Our concern should not be the issues in the world but rather the people they affect. We need to learn to depart from sympathy and welcome empathy in its place.

I’ve always heard that missions trips are somewhat of a life-changing experience. After coming back, individual faces begin to emerge from the problems. Real faces. Though not all of us have the ability to go to other parts of the world, there are always ways to become involved even if it’s simply buying a cup of Fair Trade coffee.  But, then again, maybe it’s just a matter of changing our attention from the problem and to the people.