“Live simply so that others may simply live.” – Mahatma Gandhi
It may sound to you like we’re trying too hard when we say Donald Zepeda embodies the spirit of sacrifice expounded by Mahatma Gandhi.
But the truth is Truth.
Think about your attic, your basement, the trunk of your car, your “junk” drawer. Then look the photo above on the left – it’s everything Gandhi owned on the day he died.
Now look at the photo above on the right. 7 plastic containers and a duffle bag that contain almost all of Donald Zepeda’s material life.
Write Donald a Letter!
Donald Zepeda owns little. That’s not an accident, nor was it inevitable. Donald’s a 36-year old college graduate with no “career”, a man who doesn’t own a car or a house, doesn’t have a 401k. He wears clothes way past the point almost everyone else throws them out. He chooses food based on the highest caloric content per dollar. We’ve seen him give away what money he has to people with even less.
And right now, Donald Zepeda is imprisoned. He was sentenced to 24 months in prison (+ over $55,000) for throwing powder over a case that houses the US Constitution, an action that, by design, caused no permanent damage and injured no one.
The Constitution is chock full of inspiring words. But all of us know words without action are meaningless, and most of us know our leaders are failing us.
No, Donald Zepeda hasn’t accomplished what Gandhi did. But as another great human, Martin Luther King, said: “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.”
There’s still time.