Today is Sunday. A perfect day in New England. The sun is just barely peeking out from behind the clouds; the breeze is blowing at a soft gait. I am wearing a light sweater, windows and doors wide open, sleeping dogs at my side - thinking how blessed I am in the life on this perfect crisp October day.
Yet the whole world is going crazy away from here. Everywhere, but on the Vineyard. Here, folks at least try to get along. There is a growing consciousness that less deserves more and more deserves less.
My mind drifts back to my New York home and the amount of money residents spend on dining. How many Le Bernardin dinners can well-heeled city dwellers have before getting a little bored? (Prixe Fixe Dinner for Two: $275 with tax, food only.)
Maybe, never. But couldn't New York City, with its abundance of wealth and food options, feed its poor? There is something to the increasing urgent call for sharing good fortune and economic comfort with others who struggle to find even one decent meal a day.
I heard recently from a good friend -a successful entrepreneur with a strong sense of conscience and an even bigger heart - that poverty in America is different than elsewhere. The poor in developing nations experience much more hardship than we do, he explained. That's why he gives to a program that feeds and clothes children in the Himalayas. I cogitate on this and wonder. Is this true? Is it less painful to starve in Somalia than in New York City? Does it hurt less to have no warm home, or clothes on your back in Rajhastan, Detroit, South Dakota, or the Bronx?
In Somalia, mothers leave their newborns on the side of the road for want of food. Forced to make the harrowing choice between feeding older children, themselves, or their infants, some mothers leave babies to die. The young with eyes of mourning and stomachs swelling is a horrendous sight to behold. Their suffering is agonizing to those who are victims to it and devastating to those who cannot stop it.
Yet hunger is ugly, cruel, and primitive -anywhere, in any country, in any culture, to any people...what is so tragic, sadder than anything, is having a way to stop it and refusing to do so. It remains a mystery to observers in America why our government pays farmers not to grow grain or sow crops while so many go hungry. Why not feed the world, we ask, and our own hungry countrymen, women, and babies too?
A group called, "Bread for the World" claims that, "14.5 percent of U.S. households" are food deficient. That totals "49 million American, including nearly 16 million children" who depend on the fortunate majority to help put food on their tables.
Yet due to our inefficient, overstuffed, overheated, overpaid Congress, the nation's poorest will become poorer on November 1, 2013. America's hungry will find themselves with a 5% reduction in food stamp assistance - a program that provides $668 ($22.25 p/day) for a family of four, will now provide $632. For poor families with teenage children, $36 could be the difference between one meal a day or two.
If you care at all, to help your neighbors, brothers, sisters, and children too- then I urge you to take some action and contact your senators and representatives. Say no to Food Stamp Cuts and take a stand against Hunger in America: (Contact Government Here.)
If we must make a cut in the budget somewhere, ask the lawmakers themselves to take it out of their abundant pensions and benefits or perhaps their "dining-out" expense accounts. It's only fair.