The Moment is Now

As a child, I first heard about the virtue of patience. Like all children, I wanted immediate results, and I was told to work hard, and wait patiently for the rewards that would surely come to me in time. An early recollection is my trying to wait patiently for Christmas. I still believe that patience is important, particularly in teaching, learning, negotiating, rearing children, and interpersonal relationships. I also believe that there is virtue in impatience. I am not patient about systems, individuals, or institutions that marginalize and oppress the under served. I am not patient about threats to the Liberian rain forest, or other aspects of the environment. I am not patient about our waiting to teach nearly 2M Liberians to read and write; and I am not patient about the establishment of a country wide program for HIV/AIDS education, testing, and treatment. I am not patient about a solution to hunger, malnutrition, and starvation. The moment is now. Patience can be, and has been an excuse for complacency, turning away, procrastination, and ineffectiveness and incompetence of programs that spend hundreds of millions of dollars with little result. The moment is now. No more excuses, because time is running out.