Bono on Charity, Justice and Equality

- From Bono's Speech to the 2006 National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC

Americans, like the Irish, are good at [charity]. We like to give, and we give a lot, even those who can't afford it.

But justice is a higher standard. Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice; it makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties, it doubts our concern, it questions our commitment.

Sixty-five hundred Africans are still dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any drug store. This is not about charity, this is about justice and equality.

…It's annoying but justice and equality are mates. Aren't they? Justice always wants to hang out with equality. And equality is a real pain. Yeah, “equal,” that's what it says here in this book [The Bible]. We're “all made in the image of God."