Jan Schakowsky Quotes

When you see people suffering and dying and hungry, this job gives you the ability to do something about it.

Very large scale disasters, especially those that have occurred in the developing world, have very long recovery periods.

I really connect with those moments of doing missionary work down there and just seeing the people that are dying from disease and hunger and malnutrition.

If sometimes our poor people have had to die of starvation, it is not that God didn't care for them, but because you and I didn't give, were not an instrument of love in the hands of God, to give them that bread, to give them that clothing; because we did not recognize him, when once more Christ came in distressing disguise, in the hungry man, in the lonely man, in the homeless child, and seeking for shelter.

Americans are blessed with great plenty; we are a generous people and we have a moral obligation to assist those who are suffering from poverty, disease, war and famine.

Anyone that's involved in development has discovered that all the good work that's been done in development has been undone by the AIDS emergency.

When we see people that are impoverished and people who are dealt an unfair hand, then if we have the power to help them, we should try to do that.

We assume that we've come so far as compassionate citizens of the world if we do choose to read the news, yet the attitude towards life can be one where we put blinders on and forget that there are civil wars going on. It's easy to forget that there are so many people starving to death every single day.

For all of my fortune, there are many with misfortune that need a hand.

Leaving American disaster victims to languish is morally reprehensible and un-American.

Being a mom, I am even more inspired to really help make a difference. I can't imagine what it would be like if my child didn't have a meal to eat.

In 1965, I went to what was called the worst Bihar famine in India, and I saw starvation, death, people dying of hunger, for the first time. It changed my life. I came back home, told my mother, 'I'd like to live and work in a village.' Mother went into a coma.

When you see in places like Africa and parts of Asia abject poverty, hungry children and malnutrition around you, and you look at yourself as being people who have well being and comforts, I think it takes a very insensitive, tough person not to feel they need to do something.

It is an eternal obligation toward the human being not to let him suffer from hunger when one has a chance of coming to his assistance.

We can't turn our back on people who need help.

You’ve got to help people that are downtrodden and poor, and I just think that that’s part of our culture. You’ve got to help people that can’t help themselves.

I want to be there for all those who are left behind in this world, whether it's because they are born poor, born a woman, or born in an area affected by devastation.

I'm a doer, and whether it was the tsunami in Sri Lanka or the earthquake in Indonesia, I was always saying, 'I should be there; I should be helping out.'

As a journalist, I have spent years reporting on often difficult and depressing conflicts, on poverty, and the inhuman way we sometimes treat each other.

I've seen suffering first-hand, and we have to make sure we relieve people's suffering.

If we see someone who needs help, do we stop? There is so much suffering and poverty, and a great need for good Samaritans.

You cannot walk on the water of hunger, misery, and death. You have to wade through to record them.

What happened after Katrina is that people were stirred to action; there were an enormous number of contributions by people trying to make a difference. But then we forget. We've forgotten Katrina victims, we've forgotten the face of poverty.

As a human being, I'm concerned about the world that I live in. So, I'm concerned about peace. I'm concerned about - about man's inhumanity to man. I'm concerned about the environment.

If there was nothing wrong in the world there wouldn't be anything for us to do.