Monday, March 1, 2010

Since you already have your checkbook out...


I wrote this post about a month or so ago and decided not to publish it then. I felt is was a long soapbox rant that people tired of hearing from the bleeding hearts but this morning I changed my mind. Yesterday, I attended a Homeless Action Network of Detroit benefit called Unheard Voices at the University of Detroit Mercy. It is a theatrical production of actor's monologues in the words of real Detroit homeless stories. Today, I’m writing large income-tax checks to the federal and state governments and am feeling the need to share my thoughts. Maybe this is just a memo to self not to gripe when paying my taxes.

Recently, a friend complained in one of those annoying Facebook copy-and-paste posts that “America is the only country where we have homeless without shelter, children going to bed without eating, elderly going without needed meds, and mentally ill without treatment - yet we have a benefit for the people of Haiti on 12 TV stations.” I agree, partially. I think more in terms of humanity than country but I do think it starts in our own communities first and ongoing. This is why I vote for a government that I am willing to give more of my money to so they will spread it out to those in need, beginning with the sick and homeless here.

It's easier for many to text a nominal donation or write a check in reaction to disturbing images and celebrity-induced emotional adrenaline than to accept the idea of paying more on a regular basis to aid those they feel have chosen their plight. They see a natural disaster like the earthquake in Haiti as more deserving of their help because these people didn’t get themselves into this situation. It was beyond their control.

We’ve been barraged with heartbreaking images of injury, death, despair, hunger, fright, sickness, helplessness, and homelessness. I’ve sat sobbing watching these news stories myself. It has been shocking to many to see this. They haven’t seen it before. If they haven’t seen similar images in their own inner cities or communities, they’ve turned a blind eye to humanity. These are not earthquake victims we look through but the unfortunate. They are the sick, the drug-addicted, the scared, the unemployed, the underemployed, the mentally ill, the homeless, the dying. Many of them know no other way. They are fighting for survival with little more than faith.

I applaud Americans and all of the other nations that have come together to aid the people of Haiti in their greatest time of need, I’m proud to be one of many that have. I only hope that the rewarding experience of compassionately helping strangers that are suffering helps them see how collectively small amounts add up to billions of life-saving relief. Survival of the fittest means a humanity that takes care of the weak ones. That’s what makes us stronger, not ignoring or disposing of them.

I hear so often the rebuttal that many welfare or unemployment insurance recipients are lazy, drug and alcohol addicted criminals working the system. Maybe some are, definitely not all or even most, especially the children. These programs are set up for the people who need them. It is not my place to judge those more or less deserving of this aid. A home, education, food, clothing, a job - things that most of us have never gone without - if you know someone that has, you don’t blame, you help.

Please give what you can and please keep giving, there and here. Whether it’s paying taxes that may go toward social services that help these people in our communities or donating additional money, items, your time, skills, and compassion. The piece you contribute, no matter how small, counts.

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