Down On the Corner

 

 

Mark 14:7

For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good.

 

2 Thessalonians 3:10

For even when we were with you, this we commanded you: that if any would not work, neither should he eat.

I have a routine that I use when driving. You’ve seen them. On a street corner, cardboard sign, always a dog, maybe even a chick. The supermarket basket is optional. And they are begging for anything they can get. Mainly they want cash. Several times, when the sign says, “Will work for food, I’ve tried to give them a hamburger. Well, they apparently won’t work for In & Out. Guess they were Wendy’s people.

So, at the suggestion of a Muslim friend of mine, I began to keep a shoe box of loose change on the passenger’s seat. Whenever I saw some poor wretch down on the corner, I reached into the box and grabbed some change for them. From fifty cents to two dollars, what you see is what you get. Not good enough, but I understand some do accept American Express.

There is always competition among people, and there will always be those who refuse to compete. Not everyone succeeds beyond their wildest expectations. Some barely get by. The poor you will always have. So, what do we do with the poor?

First, we must define “poor.” Most people would say to be poor is to be without money. Yet the poor rarely commit suicide. You didn’t know that did you. Once in a blue, blue moon one of them will jump off a bridge, but by and large they just suck it up. It’s the rich, the popular, the pretty people who off themselves because life just isn’t worth living. So, define “poor.”

A large percentage of poor have rejected society. The society that the rest of us depend on for validation. The society that accepts or rejects us. The society that gives us our very sustenance to our very being. It has been said that man is a social creature. So, explain the mountain man who dodges that which we, the responsible covet who chooses to live alone, using money only when he absolutely has to.

I had a homeless friend who lived in a tent at the lake. He’d come over to drink beer with me. One day I told him that a lady had left my shed full of items and feel free to go and get whatever he needed. After searching for a while he emerged with a small compact mirror. I told him go, take what he needed. He told me the mirror was all he needed.

So, to be poor is to not have money? Then to be rich is to have enough! Enough money? Or just “enough.” Without need. Rich is to be without need. To be free of the Jones. And not miss the toils and tribulations that other “normal” people struggle with that if they didn’t have that stress of that little green middleman they would not miss a single French fry. If God sees the fall of a sparrow how much more will he provide for you who are worth so much more than the birds of the air. The lion, the king of the beasts, always eats on an empty stomach.

So, it isn’t the poor that raises the ire of the populace. It’s the professional poor. The SSI check recipients. The food stamp spending three hundred pounder. The one in the emergency room with one malady after another while we scrape for chemo to buy one more day. Those who enjoy the luxury of society without even a tip of the hat to the taxpayers who funded it.

Social Security began with everyone chipping into the pot. No matter what. You could cheat on Income Tax, but even the paperboy paid into Social Security. Then, if you made sixty-five years you’d get a small percentage each month and Uncle Sam would pray to God, Jesus, and all the saints that you would die before you got back all that you paid in. And when you finally did die you couldn’t leave the remainder to anyone. Now we’re talking about another Social Security recipient who would die early too! So the money would just pile up. What to do? You come up with SSI! Pay some people who never worked a day in their lives and had a mental condition. Or a weight problem. Or just plain stupid! These chuckle heads usually live a long long time and while you’re getting $656 a month they’re getting $2500! Enjoy your cat food.

There’s just something about watching a twenty-five-year-old in line at the Food Stamp Office, doing push ups for his drop-dead gorgeous girlfriend that makes you reconsider Hitler . . . A LOT! These are the people Paul was referring to who didn’t get to eat if they didn’t work! So what happens if on the first of next month the old check just don’t show up? Do you think they’ll all starve? Will there be skeletons in the curbs? Will they eat the baby? No! They will either get a job or rob a store. They’ll join the Army. Oh, my bad. They got PTSD? And got over it. Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit. Imagine THAT? If you’re working and need a little help there’s churches. You don’t believe in God? Heck. You’re a Mormon. Go to the Bishop’s Store. And ladies . . . you’re sitting on a million dollars. Get married to some old guy with a bad heart and an investment account. There is always a light at the end of the tunnel.

Like I said in another article, this won’t be easy, but it can be done. It’ll never be perfect. Some will slip through but those who don’t and have to earn their daily bread may recover their dignity, and those who get caught in the crunch? Perhaps they’ll find Jesus.

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