move.

I sat in a local cafe yesterday, typing away on my computer and observing all the people who came in and out.  There was a table in front of me full of well-dressed seemingly professional individuals.  They talked loudly, made their presence know.  After a good half hour of discussing their agenda for the day, which at this point the whole cafe knew also, they all stood up, shook hands, and walked out the door.  The table they sat at was full of half eaten sandwiches, soupy spoons, and trash.  A total mess.  Now, there were clearly marked dish tubs and trash cans all throughout the cafe, so this just seemed ridiculous to leave for a staff member who was swamped behind the register by the lunch rush.  I moved my lap top off my lap to go pick up the table when I noticed the other surrounding tables fidget also.  I heard one man murmur, "pigs," under his breath.  A woman rolled her eyes and whispered to her husband.  I smiled thinking, I won't have to pick this mess up alone.  I sat for another minute, and nobody moved.  I thought their condescending and judgmental reactions would at least cause them to help pick up the mess.  Absolutely not.  So, I got up and started stacking dishes.  I loaded the trash onto the plates and headed to the trash can.  As I walked, wads of trash dropped from the plate.  Nobody even moved to pick that up.  I came back, cleaned up the trash I had dropped, wiped off the table, and got back to work.  The man who thought people who could leave such a mess were pigs leaned over to me and said, "you should get free lunch for that."  No longer hungry and not really in the mood to explain to him how helping me pick up half eaten sandwiches would have been reward enough, I simply smiled.  "The employees are working hard enough, it's no big deal."  The whispering woman also leaned back and applauded my cleaning.  


Stay with me here, I understand that picking up some plates and trash off of a table is really no big deal.  And as far as the group who left the mess...well, we've all done it.. be honest.  But as I sat back down and started working again, I couldn't wrap my head around the two people who were clearly disturbed by the mess.  They found it rude and presumptuous for the group to leave their trash.  And they were clearly impressed and glad I cleaned it up and not an employee.  But never once did either of them move.  


I think this over simplified example can draw a strong parallel to people's involvement in, or lack there of, social change. You see, nobody likes to see hungry children.  Most people are appalled at the number of people sold into sex and labor trafficking.  I'm sure the majority of individuals in this world wish everyone had clean water to drink from and a roof over their head.  But it stops there.  They will care about the issues from the safety of their home, or when it doesn't challenge their budget.  Nobody wants to get up from their table, pick up trash somebody else left, and clean.  And we know why.  It's messy.  It's challenging.  Sometimes, it's even a little scary.  To take on the burdens and pains of another person requires much of us.  But to sit and "care" about these people from our safe, warm tables and only talk about the wrong that is being done, I would argue, is continuing the injustice.


People need you to get up, to move.  People are dying, every single day.  And as big and messy and scary as some of these issues seem to combat, imagine enduring them your whole life. Move.