Seeking Justice or Relearning How to Share

One of the very first lessons earned as a child is that it is important to share even if we didn’t like the other child very much. It was our very first lesson in seeking justice. A squabble over a child’s toy doesn’t seem like it would be such a lesson. Think about it. To me, this lesson seems to teach many things other than giving over a toy for a short time.

In thinking about the many squabbles with my brothers and sisters and other kids over toys, I think sharing toys taught me that not everyone has what I have. Compared to other families, mine was just above the poverty line and so we didn’t have what some others had. We were fortunate to have food, water, shelter, medical care, and transportation. Some kids weren’t as lucky and I used to wonder what I could do to help.

When I was a child, I was glad we had programs in place to help those in need. As an adult, I’m glad my taxes help out programs such as WIC, Medicaid, Pell Grants, etc.

Sometimes I think the United States is becoming a country in which being poor is a crime.

The Torah’s depiction of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is a cautionary tale of how not to treat the poor and needy. The prophet Ezekiel proclaims: “Behold the sin of Sodom….She and her daughters had pride, excess bread, and peaceful serenity, but she did not strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy.” Avot 5:10 in the Mishna describes as someone who has the attitude of “What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is yours” as a Sodomite.

Right now in Congress, Republicans are trying to pass legislation that strips many of the safety programs in place. These same Republicans want to do away with Social Security, the Department of Education, and the EPA. They want to do this on the backs of the poor and the middle class while increasing the wealth of the richest people in the country.

I believe in the essential decency of Americans. I know that most would willingly help their neighbors, friends and family in hard times. There are so many who fall through the cracks. My question is our we going to be a nation that “strengthen the hand of the poor and needy” or will be one that declares “What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is your”?

Fishing

A week or so ago, I published a post called For the Common Good. It didn't generate any comments here but at Weather Underground received over 200. One of those comments was the adage of give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, he can eat every day. There's a lot of truth in that adage. It does ignore the components that need to be in place before one can teach another to fish. The person being taught needs to have a place to cook, in reasonable health, the tools necessary to catch a fish, a place to keep the fish, clean and unpolluted waterways were fish can thrive, and a way to get to the fishing spot.



In 2006 when budget hearings were being held, Congressman David Price made the following plea:

Mr. Speaker, colleagues will remember the biblical story of the prophet Nathan coming to the might King David. Nathan told David a story about a rich man who had many sheep but who took the one little ewe of a poor man to feed a visiting friend. David flew into a rage at the rich man and proclaimed that anyone who would do such a thing deserved to be put to death for abusing his power and showing so little compassion. And Nathan said to David, "You are that man". This story should lead us to look into the mirror: Are we in danger of becoming "that man"? The Republican budget removes support four housing, education, Medicaid, community development, and small business lending. It raises taxes on the poor. And it does all this so the Republicans can afford new tax cuts for the wealthiest among us. If there was ever a moral issue before this Congress, it is that one.

When my son was younger, I taught him to fish. He learned well and was soon catching more and bigger fish than I.


The thing is, I, and many like me, who come from backgrounds were opportunities were limited have benefited from programs that have taught us to fish. Funding for public education, programs such as Section 8, food stamps, public transportation and other similar programs have given many the option of learning to fish. Once basic needs were taken care of, programs such as Pell Grants enabled us to learn to fish. Many, like me, now pay taxes so that others can learn to fish.

To be able to learn to fish in order to support oneself is the basic premise of so-called entitlement programs. They are an investment in our country's future. These programs make it possible for many to pass on newly learned skills and thereby lend a helping hand to others.

It takes more than a pole to teach a person to fish. It takes roads, clean water, shelter, transportation, teachers, clothing, etc.

Daybreak, Not Just in Alabama

Daybreak in Alabama


When I get to be a composer
I'm gonna write me some music about
Daybreak in Alabama
And I'm gonna put the purtiest songs in it
Rising out of the ground like a swamp mist
And falling out of heaven like soft dew.
I'm gonna put some tall tall trees in it
And the scent of pine needles
And the smell of red clay after rain
And long red necks
And poppy colored faces
And big brown arms
And the field daisy eyes
Of black and white black white black people
And I'm gonna put white hands
And black hands and brown and yellow hands
And red clay earth hands in it
Touching everybody with kind fingers
And touching each other natural as dew
In that dawn of music when I
Get to be a composer
And write about daybreak
In Alabama.

Langston Hughes

Dreams Do Come True

Marshall Ramsey of the

Clarion-Ledger

:

Corners of the Field

Jewish law states farmers can not harvest their fields all the way to the corners, nor pick up the gleanings or fallen fruit. These are to be left for the poor and strangers to gather. It also states that the poor cannot gather more than their share. It also states that it is better to give a poor person a job or a loan. This way, the poor person can pull himself up. It further states that all must give tzedakah, the poor as well as the rich.

Jewish tzedakah also has a progressive scale of giving. A rich person is encouraged to give more than the required 10% but less than 20%. No one is to give tzedakah to the point where they will become improvised. Tzedakah is more than just giving charity.

"Tzedakah" is the Hebrew word for the acts that we call "charity" in English: giving aid, assistance and money to the poor and needy or to other worthy causes. However, the nature of tzedakah is very different from the idea of charity. The word "charity" suggests benevolence and generosity, a magnanimous act by the wealthy and powerful for the benefit of the poor and needy. The word "tzedakah" is derived from the Hebrew root Tzadei-Dalet-Qof, meaning righteousness, justice or fairness. In Judaism, giving to the poor is not viewed as a generous, magnanimous act; it is simply an act of justice and righteousness, the performance of a duty, giving the poor their due.

Justice and righteousness is the cornerstone of tzedakah. It is not just the giving money to feed the poor and to cloth the naked. It also is burying the dead. It is also teaching someone a skill in order they may support themselves or loaning them money. It also acknowledges that there are those who will abuse the system in order to get more than their share or refuse to work altogether. Should this stop us from helping those who are in need of food, housing, clothing or need education?

Many of our tax dollars in the United States go to programs to help those in need. Grants and loans are available to those who cannot afford college or vocational school costs. Programs such as WIC, food stamps, etc help to feed the poor. Other programs help the working poor with loans to buy affordable housing. Many of those loans go through FHA since many of those type of loans are under $100,000. Some would like to blame the financial crisis we are experiencing on those loans.

One group received loans through an affordable home mortgage program, called the Community Advantage Program (CAP), designed to expand homeownership among lower-income and minority homebuyers. The other group received subprime mortgage loans.

Researchers compared the default rate (90-day delinquency) within two years of origination. Borrowers with comparable characteristics who had subprime loans were three to five times as likely to go into default as those with CAP loans, the study found.

The working poor are not to blame for the financial crisis. Loans for housing helps improve the community. Grants and student loans also help improve the community. It does so by giving the working poor a hand-up. These programs help to actually increase tax revenue.

Obama's tax plan was met with a great deal of criticism. Some felt it was unfair to add an extra 3% tax burden to those making over $250,000 while at the same time, decreasing the tax burden for those that make less. Some were shouting hysterically that this was Socialism, Marxism, and even Communism.

All of this from the simple idea of lessening the tax burden on the working poor and the middle class. Some argue that increasing the tax burden on those make over $250,000 will lead to job losses and the inability to create jobs. We've been hearing this since Reagan and his 'trickle-down' economics. Since then, we've seen more and more of our jobs go overseas. We've seen a decline in the United States leadership in technology.

President Bush promised more funding for technical and vocational programs to help retrain those who lost jobs. Somehow, funding never came available. Hopefully, Obama will have greater success in his endeavors.

The United States has many social programs that can be likened to the idea of leaving the corners of the fields for the poor and strangers. In the news, you hear reports of those dubbed "Welfare Queens". You seldom hear of the millions of others who needed the help and used it to pull themselves up. Those corners help to improve the lives of all.