THE NET AS A FISHER OF MEN
The Internet is often labeled as a faceless domain that separates man from the real world. Yet, the Net can do the very opposite --to understand the realities in the world. This short witnessing concludes, "It's not the Internet you use; it's the message it carries".

Today, I went to the Philippines. It was not the trip I had planned to take. All I had on my cyber menu was to check my E-mail.

A young woman living in Mandaue City on the Island of Cebu in the
Philippines read a piece of mine that talked about having my third child. Although she has no children of her own, she wanted to write to me in kind and so sent the following E-mail letter with children as the focus: 

"Kumusta (how are you) and the incoming baby?" Aileen wrote. "Last night a co-lodger brought two of our street's children to visit.  Street's children - the term we use for children who are wandering around the street begging for food or money," she went on to casually explain. "He gave them food, a bath and I gave them old blouses.  And their stay with us was good for one night only. Early this morning they went back to their home - the street," she wrote. "There are a lot of them roaming around the city."

Well, I suppose it could pass for the surreal tag given the Net. As for being faceless, I began to see a very clear picture of those roaming the streets of Mandaue.  She was talking about children the way we discuss stray cats or raccoons that get into the trash.  But, in America even the animals have shelters. 

Instead Aileen wrote, "The orphanage here refuse to adopt them since they are already overcrowded. Then how about the funds, where are they going to get it? The orphanage lack financial support." 

Her letter noted that the children ranged in age from two to ten years old. She ends saying, "It is one of the problems here in the Philippines. When I saw them, I felt how blessed I am." 

After reading her E-mail I felt how blessed are we all, here in the scandal ridden, surplus burdened, Y2K fretting land. Here at least the children on our street are not street children. When they are we have resources to aid them.

Also, it made me want to do more than just shrug off the criticisms of the Net. It's not as frivolous or impersonal as it was before I clicked on the Pandora's box in the form of the flashing postal icon. One connection raised the level of my respect for the often not-so-Super-Highway. 

It's not the Internet you use; it's the message it carries.

Contributed by Lisa Suhay