The Least of These, My Brothers...
The Least of These
For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger and you did not receive me as a guest, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they too will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not give you whatever you needed?' Then he will answer them, 'I tell you the truth, just as you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for me.' Gospel of Matthew
When I was a boy, growing up in Nashville, Tennessee, it was a different era. Children were seen and not heard. Women definitely were NOT equal. "Black folks" did not live where "white folks" did, and time moved much slower. The world seemed small back then. There were only 4 TV channels to watch on our black and white TV. And programming stopped around midnight when something strange called a "test pattern" broadcast until around 5 AM when the morning farm and weather reports began.
Life was clearly not fair back then, but I'm not sure we made much of a fuss about it. Some people had more money than we did. I didn't think it awful that I wore "hand me downs" from my cousin, Aaron. I actually was quite excited to go to my Aunt Fay's house, and try on the clothes Aaron had outgrown. I definitely didn't feel ashamed or poor.
Back then my elementary school principal, Miss Hyde, walked with crutches that resulted from childhood polio. No one felt sorry for her that much. It was what it was. There were nice ladies in hairnets who worked in the cafeteria. Some of them had kids in school with me. They were there for milk break in the morning, and lunchtime, too.
There were janitors, mostly old and black, who cleaned the school and fixed things that were broken. As the school grew, some classes were held in "portables" - which were old, musty wooden buildings that were neither fancy nor air conditioned.
It was a simpler time, but I am not nostalgic about it. In the summer, there were activities at the school like kickball and 4 Square. Most of the activities were led by high school kids who were paid by the city.
Back then, there were no computers and definitely no spreadsheets. No one calculated the cost/benefit ratio of the janitors jobs, the lunchroom jobs or the summer activity leaders. I doubt anyone understood that these entry-level jobs were stepping stones into the workforce. They were a way to balance family and finances. And for some, they were the only jobs they were able to perform.
A lot has been written about the unequal income distribution in modern America. Much of the blame can be laid at the feet of mercantilist policies of both Republican and Democratic administrations. It was President Bill Clinton who advocated for both welfare-reform and NAFTA. But I believe most of the blame can rest with President Ronald Reagan.
Because Reagan famously preached that government was never the answer. Instead, it was always the problem. Reagan also fired all of the striking members of PATCO, the professional air traffic controllers union, in the first year of his presidency. Reagan showed Americans that he believed both governments and unions should be opposed whenever possible.
Recent studies have shown that, historically, both government and union jobs were critically important for many marginalized workers. In the time of Jim Crow apartheid, the US Postal Service provided good paying, secure jobs for many black families. The United Mine Workers Union protected many coal miners from rapacious mine owners such as Don Blankenship. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Blankenship
And although Ford Motor Company likes to present itself as a good corporate citizen, it was not always so. Henry Ford was both ruthless and unrepentant in his efforts to break the fledgling AFL/CIO. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1973/7/6/battle-of-river-rouge-reuthers-struggle/
As Charles Dickens famously wrote:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
In 2018, we have a philandering, litigious liar serving as President of the United States. This is not that unusual, as Kennedy was a philanderer and Nixon was a liar. What is unusual is the enthusiastic support of people professing to be followers of Jesus Christ. I have written, previously, on this hypocrisy and will continue to do so.
But for today, I want to remind us all that the poor have always been with us. So, also, will be those with physical and mental handicaps - and those to whom life has dealt a very poor hand. Jesus said as much when he said "For you will always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me!"
It seems that Jesus and Ayn Rand will have quite a disagreement when they next meet. Jesus did not see everyone as capable or willing to become masters of their own fate.
He came not as taskmaster, but as a man moved by mercy. In the Gospel of Matthew, he also said "If you had known what this means: 'I want mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the innocent."
Obviously, Mike Pence and Franklin Graham (the son of evangelist Billy Graham) - both who proclaim themselves followers of this Jesus - have conveniently forgotten both his words and his mission.
When Republicans cut school funding, Medicaid, job training, women's healthcare funding at Planned Parenthood, the environmental clean up in Flint, MI, and disaster relief for Puerto Rico, they do not hurt Wall Street Bankers or Texas MegaChurch preachers.
They do not hurt prosperity gospel believers in Oklahoma or abortion clinic protesters in Mississippi. They hurt the poor, the very "least of these" that Jesus spoke of and cared so much about.
I purposefully omitted the final verse of the passage from Matthew with which I began this article.
Then he will answer them, 'I tell you the truth, just as you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for me.' And these shall go away into eternal punishment: but the righteous into eternal life.
That seems fair to me…
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