This morning as I was sitting in traffic, the song playing on the radio was, “Do they know it’s Christmas?” I’ve always hummed the tune but this time I really paid attention to the lyrics.

This year, this song has a completely different meaning for me.  It’s easy for us to get caught up in the gift buying and holiday madness.  That is completely trivial to me when I know that some of the new friends I made in the Cornell Alliance for Science fellowship live where many people don’t even have the basics of food, shelter, and clean water.  I feel really selfish wanting things I really don’t need.

The original BandAid song was played over 30 years ago and one of the key phrases in in that song is, “Feed the World.” We were all singing these words some 3 decades ago but not really grasping what it meant.  I have seen so many anti-biotech activists saying that the feed the world message is “multinational agrochemical company propaganda” and completely dismiss it.  30 years ago the trend was not farmer bashing of shouting out Monsanto.  It was a different time.

Fast forward to the present and I discovered that there is an updated version of the same song.

The message is still the same.  There are so many others who aren’t as lucky as us in well fed, wealthy countries.  Even in my own state there are people who don’t have much, including children.  We don’t have to drive far to see the homeless living on the streets, under bridges, and on the beaches.

We can give what we can to help others in our own community and even beyond, in the global community.  You don’t have to have lots of money to make someone’s life better.  You can simply come out in support of something that can help people.

My gift to the world is supporting science for the betterment of improving lives.  That investment to help others can hopefully give a world of peace for my children.  Will you do that for all children?