Why We Fight
With the troubling rise in Ebola over the last few weeks, I’ve been thinking a lot about what we are fighting for at the Alliance for American Leadership.
I was recently in Georgia registering voters and holding on-campus rallies to restore funding for humanitarian aid.
Between campus rallies and talking to organizers, I spent a long time at Martin Luther King Jr.’s grave, reading and re-reading his thoughts on what he called the Beloved Community, and how it connects to humanitarian aid.
“In the Beloved Community, caring and compassion drive political policies that support the worldwide elimination of poverty and hunger and all forms of bigotry and violence. The Beloved Community embraces all creation. At its core, the Beloved Community is an engine of reconciliation.”
Did USAID achieve the Beloved Community?
It prevented 90 million deaths from disease and hunger over the past two decades.
It helped lift a billion people out of extreme poverty.
It stabilized many more countries across the world, promoted peace, and kept American soldiers safe at home.
But did it achieve a world entirely without hunger, poverty, and war?
No. And how could it?
USAID was less than one percent of the U.S. federal budget. A rounding error in the budget.
And yet, for so little, it did so much.
What if instead of dismantling USAID, we doubled down on its success?
What if we invested 2% of the federal budget in fighting global poverty and hunger?
What if instead of spending so much on war, we spent a little bit more on peace and stability? What if our leaders fought to end poverty, both here at home and overseas?
What would America be capable of then?
Could we create a Marshall Plan for Latin America and Africa?
Could we end poverty, hunger, and war?
Could we be the generation to finally achieve MLK’s vision of a Beloved Community?
Yes. Yes we could. Yes, we will.
But it’s going to take work. Hard work. Politicians say that USAID never had a constituency.
They say that no one cared that 8,400 children die of malnutrition every day around the world.
They say that we were indifferent to suffering. They say that we would prefer if our country did nothing.
Let’s prove them wrong.
When you support the Alliance for American Leadership, you’re not just giving us the tools to elect champions of foreign aid, you’re also telling members of Congress they should prioritize America’s role in eradicating poverty and hunger around the world.
That it’s time for them to invest in a Beloved Community.
So please, donate $50 to the Alliance for American Leadership. Help us strengthen our college chapters at schools like Emory University, Georgia Tech, and the University of West Georgia.
Help us pay need-based stipends to hard-working interns across Georgia, and the country, fighting to get out the youth vote. Help us achieve the Beloved Community that MLK dreamed of.
As MLK said, “This way of living seems a long way from the kind of world we have now, but I do believe it is a goal that can be accomplished through courage and determination and through education and training, if enough people are willing to make the necessary commitment.”
Will you make the necessary commitment?
Asher Moss
Executive Director
Alliance for American Leadership
P.S. Join our upcoming livestream with Congressional candidate and former USAID Officer Nina Schwelbe to learn more about the importance of foreign aid.