“I love mankind, it’s people I can’t stand!” Linus, in a Peanuts comic strip by Charles Schultz

We hear and see the word famine a lot these days, and when its use for one country or region fades from the news, it is often not because those people are now well fed, but merely because another country or region has supplanted it in the public eye. Risk of famine in Afghanistan after the US pullout and Taliban takeover. Famine in Sudan during civil war. Famine in Gaza. How many people in how many other places do I just never hear about? No one likes being hungry, but starvation is orders of magnitude
worse, and famine means that whole populations are suffering.

But what prompts me to write is not the simple horrifying fact that millions of people around the globe are in dire straits.

No, it is the added horror, shame and frustration that comes from the fact that people are not hungry because of a worldwide shortage of food. People are starving because of wars. War, be it a civil war, an international war, a sectarian war, a gang war…People are dying dreadful deaths because people cannot get along. Some want power, some want wealth, some brandish guns for ideology or religion. We compete to be right! To be bigger! To feel more secure. Yet war in one century does not solve problems and prevent war in the next. Be it the resurgence of the last loser, or a new ideology or demagogue, or merely everyday greed and power grabbing, there is always another war. More people are killed and all too often more people are made to feel hunger to the point of starvation.

War has created hunger in parts of Ukraine, despite it being a major agricultural region in peacetime. And disruption of its agriculture and transport by that war means less food is exported to countries dependent upon it or available to food relief agencies. Drought in east Africa means food resources are stretched to the breaking point already and civil war tips millions toward starvation. Haitians are afraid and hungry from gang warfare in the absence of a functioning government. The list feels endless.

And this all makes me feel so powerless. This pattern of needless suffering is infuriating. I cannot stop the wars. I cannot make the world less cruel. I can support local organizations combatting food insecurity in my community. That is not a famine, but it is destructive of lives. I can support international organizations that feed the hungry across the globe. I can vote for leaders who seek respect for humanity. I can participate in groups seeking respectful and productive communication.

And this does not even touch upon the prevalence of sexual violence against women as a weapon in these same wars.

Linus is right. It is one thing to love humanity writ large, but the people, oh, the people make me want to scream. Thanks for listening.