Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Blessed is the Full Plate

I get enough to eat, and so do you. More than we need to simply survive. Some folks don't. It's unconscionable in the richest land of plenty in the world. Anna Quindlen with today's 'must read':

One of the most majestic dining rooms in New York City is in the Church of the Holy Apostles. After the landmark building was nearly destroyed by fire in 1990, the Episcopal parish made the decision not to replace the pews so that the nave could become a place of various uses. There are traditional Sunday services, of course, and the gay and lesbian synagogue on Friday evenings. And every weekday more than a thousand people eat lunch at round tables beneath 12-foot stained-glass windows and a priceless Dutch pipe organ.

"You can't get more Biblical than feeding the hungry," says the Rev. William Greenlaw, the rector.

[...] But poverty is not a subject that's been discussed much by the current administration, who were wild to bring freedom to the Iraqis but not bread to the South Bronx. "Hunger is hard for us as a nation to admit," says Clyde Kuemmerle, who oversees the volunteers at Holy Apostles. "That makes it hard to talk about and impossible to run on."

[...] An agriculture bill that would have increased aid and the food-stamp allotment has been knocking around Congress, where no one ever goes hungry (my em and no shit!- G). Donations from a federal program that buys excess crops from farmers and gives them to food banks has shrunk alarmingly. [...]

This place is a blessing, and an outrage. "We call these people our guests," says the rector. "They are the children of God." That's real God talk. The political arena has been lousy with the talk-show variety in recent years: worrying about whether children could pray in school instead of whether they'd eaten before they got there, obsessing about the beginning of life instead of the end of poverty, concerned with private behavior instead of public generosity.

There's a miracle in which an enormous crowd comes to hear Jesus and he feeds them all by turning a bit of bread and fish into enough to serve the multitudes. The truth is that America is so rich that political leaders could actually produce some variant of that miracle if they had the will. And, I suppose, if they thought there were votes in it. Enough with the pious sanctimony about gay marriage and abortion. If elected officials want to bring God talk into public life, let it be the bedrock stuff, about charity and mercy and the least of our brethren. Instead of the performance art of the presidential debate, the candidates should come to Holy Apostles and do what good people, people of faith, do there every day—feed the hungry, comfort the weary, soothe the afflicted. And wipe down the tables after each seating. Here's a prayer for every politician: pasta, collard greens, bread, cling peaches. Amen.

Folks are going hungry in this country because there's no profit or votes in feeding them, so the pols don't want to see them and don't want us to see them. Everything's fine, go to the mall in your SUV, don't worry about a thing, consume, consume, consume, after all we're the richest country ever, what could possibly go wrong?

Well, Bush, mainly. The easiest way to be right 90+% of the time is to blame Bush for anything and everything that goes wrong. The impending recession he's started by borrowing us into the poorhouse, and the spending cuts on programs that work - government isn't supposed to work, so when it does, cut it off at the knees until it doesn't so you can prove it doesn't work - along with runaway corporate greed promoted as policy, is going to make a lot more hungry people a little ways down the road. It's going to get worse before it gets better.

Over the years, I've participated in various food giveaway programs as volunteer labor. It's amazing the number of folks who show up, and who depend on the generosity of others to get enough to eat. It doesn't matter why. The point is, there are folks going hungry in our great nation. I applaud the churches and local organizations who help get food to those in need, but they need more help from the Feds than they're getting now. A damn fine use of tax money, and a 'moral value' to boot.

They can also use a little help from the rest of us too. Particularly at this time of year, there's usually a big barrel at the supermarket to donate food for the needy. Doesn't have to be fancy stuff, just edible. When the supermarket brand of spaghetti & meatballs or mac'n cheese or whatever goes on sale, spend an extra buck and toss a can or box in there. Someone may get a meal who otherwise wouldn't.

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