Sunday, November 3, 2013

HOW CAN WE LET THIS HAPPEN?

I am so distraught about the new cuts to the food stamp program.  How can anyone live with themselves knowing that millions of children go to bed at night hungry?  How can we live with ourselves knowing that not only children but adults and seniors go to bed hungry?  How can we live with ourselves knowing that millions of seniors are being taken off Meals on Wheels?
Here is a little story about Meals on Wheels.  I was so upset that seniors were losing one meal a week that I called the local chapter to see what ordinary citizens could do to help out.  The woman I spoke to told me, in a very cold way, that due to regulations they could not accept food from us.  I even offered to have my kitchen inspected.  I told her that here in my neighborhood we could supply all the desserts they needed and she told me that they were cutting back to one cookie a day!  Now to us that cookie may not be important but to a senior living alone that cookie may be the highlight of their day.  She also said I would need to get in touch with someone who had more authority.  I was disgusted.  We are told by some in government that individuals and churches need to take up the slack but when one tries to do so we are not allowed due to "regulations".  Does anyone realize how important those meals are to the seniors?  It is not only the food that is important but the connection with another human being who delivers their food and stops to have a word or two with that person.
How can we make our elected representatives understand just how these cuts affect the people they are supposed to represent?  How can we get the public to rise up and complain about these cuts?  We sit in our comfortable homes, well dressed, well fed with all of our  smart phones and wide screen TV's and other luxuries and do nothing!  Aren't we supposed to be our brother's keeper?  Aren't we supposed to feed and clothe those less fortunate than ourselves?  Doesn't our government have a responsibility to see that its citizens are fed, clothed and healthy?
We have 1% of our society that have so much money and then a huge proportion of people who have little or nothing.  Here in Portland we have seniors in homeless shelters and the shelters are full to overflowing.  Something needs to be done.  How are we to accomplish this?
Now the House of Representatives is talking about a long vacation as there isn't much to do.  What are they thinking?  There is a lot to do and we are paying them good money.  I say take their pay away and give it to the programs that have need and then end the sequester cuts that are hurting so many.  No one is talking about the sequester.  Does anyone really care?  How can any representative or senator go home and look those people in the eye and see the eyes of those who are hungry and discouraged and not want to act to help them?  I do not have the answers but I do know that unless the people rise up and demand change it will not happen.
So won't you join me in hounding our legislatures to fix these critical problems?  Or will you choose to sit at home and ignore the existence of the plight of the poor, the unemployed, the disabled and the children?  That is the choice that faces us.