November 20

Proverbs 28:3-5
A ruler who oppresses the poor is like a driving rain that leaves no crops.

Okay, I have written and re-written this blog post 4 times. I am not sure why I am having a hard time with this because I believe passionately in helping the poor. I have only been penniless for one period in my life but it left an indelible scar on me and I never want to go back to that again. In my twisted karma viewpoint, I think I see helping the poor will prevent that and maybe it will.
But the vast majority of the folks that I have encountered aren't gaming the system. They are just struggling to get by.

Take a phone conversation that I had today with a couple in Louisiana. Their rent on their little government housing unit is 530 a month. When they called me, their power had just been turned off for non-payment and they had received a notice from the property manager who had been letting them pay a little at the time, usually weekly, that they were behind several hundred dollars. I could hear a little one in the background, an adult male and the shaky female that I was talking to.
She didn't think she owed the money but she couldn't find her money order stubs in the dark and she just didn't know what to do. I tried to help but because they had been paying a little and a little and a little, without the stubs I just couldn't help them piece together the money picture. It made me really sad to hear how frightened she was. And I couldn't help her.
It makes me sad and sometimes mad that we live in a country where people have a hard time making ends meet. And I realize that some of that is the people's choices have led to this situation. But there are usually babies and children involved and they didn't have the choice.

I realize I sound like a bleeding heart liberal commie pinko nut (a quote from a recent email from a 'fan'). And sometimes I am. Sometimes I think everyone should require birth control injections to go to high school and we should do whatever we have to do to get folks graduated and into a trade.
Other times, I am firmly in the 'you made your bed and your choices and now you and your kids have to live with the consequences'.
I just wish that there were other options.