There are so many issues facing and challenging our nation today that sometimes it just seems too overwhelming, too large to even begin to address them.

• Can all Americans have equal and affordable access to quality health care?

• Can all Americans secure a job with a living wage?

• Can all Americans have access to an affordable quality education?

• Can America reverse the widening gap between rich and poor and eliminate poverty in the wealthiest nation the world has ever seen?

• Can America become a leader in the world that seeks peace and justice and addresses global issues that threaten the world’s very existence such as global warming, genocide, tyranny and our own imperial impulses?

So many questions. I certainly cannot begin to answer these questions. I think we all, as individuals, can be overwhelmed into inaction. Only together can we begin the journey to collectively achieve such lofty goals.

London, Tokyo, Beijing and even Washington are too far away for me to feel that I can influence decisions made there. But Lawrence? I live here. I see, touch, know people here. So maybe I, and you, can begin the journey of change here.

To take this journey I need a compass. Not any normal compass but a moral compass to lead me to the “needs of the heart” in our community.

Most social service agencies are being overloaded with more demand in this time of recession and, at the same time, are receiving fewer resources. Here are a few examples:

• The Salvation Army is having Christmas in July kettles to raise money for the shortfall they have in light of rising needs.

• There are more medically uninsured among us and Health Care Access needs more resources.

• The often unspoken of spousal and child abuse in our midst is rampant, yet the very agency that addresses this need — WTCS — is fighting for its very existence, needing $25,000 by August just to stay operational.

• Any semblance of a sound, secure homeless shelter is non-existent as this recession adds to this issue right here in Lawrence.

• Our local hospital refuses to provide a psychiatric unit as it once so ably did. This, at a time when our state has turned its back on the mentally ill. The new state hospital beds have become our jails and state prisons with an estimated 44 percent of the state prison population suffering from mental disorders and over 1000 of these needing intensive monitoring and services.

• People are hungry in this city and our food banks cannot keep up.

I know there are many, many caring devoted citizens in this city that give generous amounts of their time, talents and money in every effort to meet the needs listed above and many more. But, the picture of our local moral compass is stained with hedonistic, self-serving tendencies that overwhelm those who may be seeking to follow a truly moral compass.

A moral compass calls for sacrifice, meaningful “I-can-feel-it” sacrifice, in the times of need. Let’s take a look at a couple of examples from recent headlines of the compass now leading Lawrence:

• We are building not one but two new high school football stadiums.

• This so excites others that they contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars to embellish these stadiums.

• We consider a $300,000 “study” for building another recreation center with its perpetual upkeep and staffing costs.

Do we truly have a local moral compass if such “wants” supercede the “needs” of local citizens? May those of us whose needs are being met daily stop and really see the hurting and suffering in our midst and ask ourselves, can we become the idealized “city shining on a hill”? Can we truly lead our city with a moral compass that will enable us to embrace and resolve the suffering needs of our fellow citizens?