In a world where chandeliers glitter above champagne flutes and wealth is paraded as virtue, I ask for a pause. Not to pray—but to reckon.

There are over eight billion people on this planet. Each one born into a body, a breath, a need. Not all are born into shelter. Not all are born into safety. But all are born into the same human condition: vulnerability.

While some exchange gifts wrapped in gold and toast to comfort, others search for clean water. Others sleep on concrete. Others raise children in tents. These are not distant statistics. They are neighbors. They are kin.

The global economy rewards extraction, not compassion. It praises accumulation, not stewardship. And yet, the peasant farmer—often unseen—tends the soil that feeds us all. The migrant worker builds the towers we inhabit. The caregiver, underpaid and overworked, holds the fragile bodies of our elders.

Wealth is not distributed by merit. Poverty is not a moral failure. And death, that final equalizer, comes for us all—regardless of status.

So let us ask: Who benefits from the current order? Who is left behind? And what kind of world are we building when justice is gated and dignity is rationed?

This is not a call to faith. It is a call to conscience. Whether one believes in divine creation or not, the ethical imperative remains: no human being should be discarded.

Before the music plays. Before the glasses clink. Let us remember: some have no home. Some have no water. Some have no shield against the cold.

We are our brother’s keeper—not by charity, but by shared humanity. The measure of a society is not in its wealth, but in how it treats the forgotten.

Let us listen. Let us act. Let us build a world where dignity is not a privilege—but a birthright.

The post Reclaiming the Sacred in a World of Disparity first appeared on Dissident Voice.

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