As I write this, another powerful natural disaster in the form of an earthquake has caused massive destruction in central China. It is a situation that requires much prayer for the victims as well as a helping hand. However, I wish to focus this entry on another humanitarian crisis in Myanmar, where a little over a week ago, a cyclone ravaged the isolationist country, killing an estimated 33,000 people and leaving millions of others without basic necessities.

On December 28, democracy was dealt a severe blow when supposed religions fanatics cut short Benazir Bhutto's life. The former prime minister, and the first female head-of-state of an Islamic nation, Ms. Bhutto had come back from self-exile to participate in the upcoming Pakistan democratic presidential elections. Her death is the center of focus, with differing accounts of how exactly she died. But regardless of whether she was felled by a bullet or shrapnel or the lever of the car's sunroof, her death may possibly signal the end of democracy in Pakistan.

There was a time when every citizen of the United States sought the right to vote. A great war was fought and several key amendments to the Constitution were passed to allow all peoples to participate in the great American democracy project. In the past, men and women, black and white, Christians and non-Christians, faithfully turned out on election days to cast their ballots.

In 1776, Thomas Jefferson penned one of the most revolutionary thoughts in all of history when he wrote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Today, this fundamental tenet of American democracy is being put to the test in every corner of the world.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. By now, I should’ve been in medical school. Or at least medical school bound. But then a failed class in genetics, a few retreats, and a couple of summer missions trips later, here I am.