A Continuation of Jarvis' Speech from "Cry, My Beloved Country"

It is time to end the selfishness that continues to undermine our systems, causing the people to work against the people. We uphold selfless giving, but we have rarely if ever shaken the hand of a coloured or a native. We uphold orderly rule and opportunity for all, but we continue segregation if not for our own comfort, then for the sake of tradition. We uphold supporting those under us, but only as long as they stay under us. And we are henceforth pressured, in order that we may maintain our benevolent image, to project a depiction of compassion, publicly donating funds to the church, to be devoted to the Lord God, who made our merely human and noble gestures possible, and to say that because He created all of His children, He placed the riches in the wealthy’s hand as equally as the pennies in the poor’s. We sometimes venture far enough down the lane where we do not help the meek or the cripple or the lame, for if God positioned them in that state, that is where they are to stay, and who are we to claim otherwise? As our heads float in a cloud of conceited altruism, we assume that every crumb we fling towards the poor is blessed by God, every crumb we grudgingly cast down brings God’s mercy upon us, every crumb that we provide to a less fortunate person secures another gem on our heavenly crown. We say the ghettos in our country are born from lack of money and productivity in the community because the people will not care to profit from such renovations; we say the ghettos in our states do not have appropriate education because the young do not care to learn and the old do not care to teach; we say the ghettos in our valleys fester prostitution and bootlegging, but we do not offer applicable jobs that can issue an alternative. To end the violence, to end the brutality, to end the poverty, those in power must extend their hand to those without power, not with the narcissism of the Pharisee lifting his head to heaven, blaring out his prayer to God, but in the simple and selfless manner of the publican who braved his head, recognizing his limitations in the presence of God. It is time.