What's on my mind... and probably yours, too.

 "No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another."

--Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend


If you are able to donate time, talent, or treasure-- canned food, good cheer, phone calls and letters to officials, whatever you can and whatever it takes-- please do. 

People are hungry. And not just for food (though that is definitely at the top of the list). 

With the proposed cuts and new rules regarding permanent housing for those who are unhoused, it's estimated that 170,000 people will be put on the streets. All people who qualify for SNAP will have to "reapply"-- even though they already recertify every six months. This shift toward making poverty a moral failing (there are sobriety rules attached as well) is coming from a party that has its own share of moral turpitude. It's cruelty that would make Herod blush. From erstwhile "card-carrying Christians" this is especially repugnant: Jesus would start knotting cords and flipping tables again. Such heresy cannot be excused.

And all while many pundits and elected persons of that ilk are excusing the disgusting behavior of some of its poster children. Sex crimes are unacceptable, and it's no matter at all which "party" the perpetrators are associated with. These are crimes against human beings. Against children. Over and over again. The news is full of atrocities. Matt Gaetz, a one-time chosen GOP star to lead the country's legal system, is credibly accused of having coerced a then-17 year old girl who was living in a homeless shelter into having sex for money to feed herself and her family. 

Is this the "plan" for those who are living in desperate financial situations? Depending on broken, callous, amoral people to be "saviors" of the poor amongst us?

We must act in any and every way we can, those of us who have the comfort of a home, a job, food on our tables. 

Bless you if you already do- I suspect I'm preaching to the choir. 

Hold your loved ones close. We need to be there for one another. These are difficult and dark times.

C







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