September 24, 2012

• Dark Monday

  Itr is a sunny day, brisk fall temperatures and it should be a bright Monday but it isn’t.  I am at the church and I have received calls for help from total strangers.  They are calling all the churches in the phonebook trying to get help to feed their families, pay their rent, purchase prescriptions, get a bus pass to be be able to find work or go to work.  The stories are heart wrenching and yes, I know, some of them are totally fabricated but some too many are honest accounts of their lives.  I am supposed to know which are which and even if I do believe the story, I have precious little to offer.

  I tried to raise my spirit by remembering the story of the person walking along the beach and throwing stranded starfish back into the ocean.  When the person is confronted that there are so many starfish that impossible to save them all so what difference does it make.  The person responds that it makes a difference to the starfish that is thrown back into the sea.  Nice story, probably a good analogy but on my dark Monday I wonder does it really make a difference to that starfish thrown back into the sea throws the starfish back on the beach.  Do we make a difference to someone who has no way to pay rent, buy food, get their medicine, get to and from work and we cannot support them over time.  I understand the unexpected emergency that a one time offer of support resolves and the person can manage from then on.  I understand giving someone assistance for the first couple weeks of a job before they get their first paycheck, and I understand supporting people waiting for their pension, their disability, or unemployment.  But how do we help those who are in pervasive poverty and the social safety net has failed them?

  It seems to me the government has failed to provide a basic safety net at the very time when charitable institutions are struggling to meet their own expenses let alone have resources to support those who cannot support themselves.  The true source of my dark Monday is my concern that we have reached compassion fatique and we no longer are willing to be taxed to care for others, we are no longer willing to give from our resources to charitable organizations in such a way as to sustain people over long periods of time. I have received messages from friends I believe to be decent, good hearted people, who have tried to convince me the government was wrong to intervene to protect pension funds of businesses that were failing because this caused the stockholders and the investors to loose money.  Isn’t that the risk one takes when one invests?  I cannot help but feel the prevailing culture is to take care of one’s self and everyone is on their own.

   I fear that my response may be to stop walking the beach so I don’t have to see the stranded starfish and I don’t want to feel that way.

  • 1:00 pm
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