I’ve had alot of experience - both good and bad - with people keeping their promises. Isn’t it great when you see someone persevere through a difficult time while keeping their ethics intact?

A wise person told me recently "ethics don’t break, they crumble". That is something I can grok, as I’ve seen good people make decisions of increasingly poor ethical quality over a period of months/years. These were high quality people; they didn’t just wake up on a random Tuesday and say, "I think I’ll begin lying to everyone." Their ethics did not just break one day. Rather, they crumbled over time.

We all know that keeping promises in the face of adversity is not an easy thing to do, but what a joy it is when you witness promises kept!

The same thing can be applied to our country. We’ve promised as a country to fight extreme poverty via the Millennium Development Goals. Specifically, we’ve promised to increase our foreign aid to 0.7% of our national income.

Events like this one in San Francisco - sponsored by Catholic Relief Services with Jeffrey Sachs and David Batstone as speakers - are going on all over the country. I’d encourage you to find your local events, take part, and support this movement to eradicate extreme poverty.