Last night Joy and I joined some friends who invited us to attend a fund raiser in the small town of Lanesboro, Minnesota. The guest for the evening was Garrison Keillor. We gave a donation of $20 a piece to hear one of the great story tellers of all time up close and personal. He did not disappoint us as he spun one tale after another into an amazing tapestry of American life.
One of the themes he developed, perhaps the main one, was his having grown up in a Minnesota that took helping one another for granted. He said there was no such thing as leaving anyone behind. If you could do anything to help your neighbor, especially one who hit a hard patch and was really down, you did it without thinking about it. Then he lamented the fact that we seem to have lost this sense of community and one for all and all for one way of life. In today’s America those who are poor, unemployed, or needing extra help to eat or go to school are being blamed for a bad economy, being accused of not wanting to help themselves, and are being told that their troubles are no one’s fault but their own. He talked about his father building the house where both of his parents lived most of their married life and where both died. He said that house was built because of the help his father got from so many other people, and how his parents instilled in him an awareness that nobody gets where they are solely on their own.
I think we have in fact lost the sense of community that once held us together as Americans. I don’t believe there are many people who want a handout, they just want a chance to stand up on their own. I don’t believe most people resent the success of others, they just want a chance to succeed themselves. They don’t mind someone getting rich, they just want the playing field to be level. They believe in equal opportunity, not in getting something for nothing.
But the playing field is not level. Important studies have shown that where you come from does affect how far you get in life in the America of today. Educational levels do matter. Having resources to draw on when you are starting out makes an enormous difference. Having friends in high places helps you. Studies also show that a lot of things people believe about the poor are just not true. Most are white, not black, women, not men, most work one and two jobs instead of doing nothing, most want to have a better job but cannot take time off to look for one or don’t have the qualifications to move up. Those of them who don’t have health insurance don’t because of pre-existing conditions or because they cannot afford the premium payments. In short, facts show that “the welfare queen” a former politician successfully ran against was a myth then and still is. America’s poor have jobs they work every day. They still sacrifice everything to help their children get ahead. And they are proud to be Americans.
I suppose there will always be people who will rail against government help for those who actually need it. I know one who was a colleague of mine years ago and once a good friend. Facts don’t matter to him anymore. As someone who lives a very good life, he seems consumed by the fear that somewhere someone is getting something for nothing. While I am saddened by his attitudes, what troubles me more is the fact that he represents so many Christians who think the same way. Most of what the four gospels say about Jesus has him living among and being an advocate for the poor of his day. There is no way around it. He even said that in the end all of us will be judged not on the basis of what we believe, but on how we treat ”the least of these.”
How can it be that some people who claim to follow Jesus support an economic Darwinism that says it’s all about the survival of the fittest. The social safety net we still have in this country is not about a hand out, but a hand up. It’s about community, about what it means to be one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. It seems to me it ought to be something every person of faith would want to strengthen, not limit or eliminate altogether.
On the way home last night I thought about the fact that though I may not be my brother’s keeper (or sister’s). I am and always will be my brother’s brother. In the midst of the mess our nation is in, I hope I never, ever forget that.
