Ted Kennedy may have been a wealthy man but he and indeed his whole family seemed to possess compassion in spades and this county will sorely miss him. The compassion for those with less must be carried on if we as a nation are to survive. We as individuals must carry this forth in our daily lives our we will surely become the sauce for the goose on a very wealthy persons plate. Find some way to practice some random act of kindness that shows compassion for you fellow humans beings and to it today.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Compassion Lost?
Light Word: Compassion: sympathetic consciousness of others' distress with a desire to alleviate it. I pondered this word in my head as I mourned with my family the death of Ted Kennedy. As I listened to his life eulogized it struck me that this was a man of very rare compassion and what a loss it was to a nation so in need of it. Questions began to emerge in my mind. Who will pick up this mantle and champion the cause of the disenfranchised working poor of this country? Was this man the last Lion of compassion? I hoped not but I have fears. A story came to me shortly after the funeral of a homeless woman whom my Aunt knows and has been trying to help. This poor lady has a small pension of $945 dollars a month and was told she made to much money for food stamps. I looked this up and the food stamp program is a U.S.D.A. program that was designed to promote American commercial agricultural products and is not and was never intended to be a welfare program. So how was it made so? And how can a woman of such low means be denied access to a program that at one time most Americans qualified for? Have we moved so far to the right that we have lost our compassion? Can a program that was designed to promote capitalism be stood on it's head to such a point where profits are still made but no benefit is given? How poverty stricken to you have to be in this country to receive some sort of compassion? When a woman of sixty is pushed into the streets due to a lack of means what does that say about us a society? We call out selves people of faith be it Christian, Jew or Islam and we are all people of the Book. But are we our brothers keeper when we allow things like this to go on? If a person has to make below this to qualify what nourishment could they possibly be given at that level. Ponder the current health care debate and ask where is the compassion? We only seemed to be concerned with protecting a very profitable industry. The right seems to possess something they call "compassionate conservatism" but I think we have all seen how far that extends as poverty has grown and the gap between rich and poor has become The Grand Canyon. As 1% of the population has taken 66% of all compensation dollars the only thing we as a country are worried is protecting the gold mine for the wealthy.
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Our hearts and prayers are with the Kennedy family. They and our nation has suffered a great loss. The greatest tribute would be for all of us to continue to be pro-active in our fight to get universal health care.
ReplyDeleteI have contacted the Waterkeeper Alliance to forward the following policy proposal to Robert F. Kennedy. This policy change could help seal the legacy for both Robert and Ted Kennedy as it could cover the uninsured and also cut the governments carbon footprint by 20% to 50%.
The Government already has the funds to pay for Universal Health Care. It is time to stop the madness and violence at the health care reform meetings.
Using shift work for white collar jobs could cut the cost of the 500 million square feet of office space currently in used by the federal government by up to 50%. This would save enough money to provide universal health care. It could also reduce the carbon footprint by 50%. For details go to:
http://whitecollargreenspace.blogspot.com/
Now featured on http://www.buzzflash.com/ under the heading:
"Using Shift work for white collar jobs to greatly reduce the fiscal and environmental cost of new office space"
I believe that when this policy change is adopted by the federal government and the sates, it could have the greatest impact on our society, the economy, and the environment of any other event of Obama's first term. We are looking for a national spokesperson. If adopted by private industry, it would be like finding vast new reserves of oil and metals in the USA, enough to construct as many buildings as we have in the last 150 years. Almost all buildngs can be retro-fitted for the white collar work of the 21st century. It would also stop the giant sucking sound and make American workers competetive again in the global economy. Outsourcing and the movement of our jobs overseas could be reversed. I am working with the unions and environmental goups in Michigan to arrange a meeting with the governor to push this policy change and end the furloughs of state and local government employees.
-It is time to stop the madness at the town hall meetings. The federal government already has the money to pay for universal health care. I have presented my proposal to Michigan congressman, Senators, and governor. Also the Whitehouse, CBO and several environmental groups, unions, and health care advocate groups. I am trying to put together a consortium as the plan will save jobs, save the environment, save money, and provide health insurance. It could have a greater positive impact on the environment than if we could snap our fingers and instantly change every car in the united States into a hybrid
The fact that 50 million of our friends, neighbors, and relatives do not have health coverage is a human tragedy. See www.whitecollargreenspace.blogspot.com for an immediate solution. The government has the money right now to pay for it.
Please post a comment if you do not think this will work or send me an email @ whitecollargreenspaceguy@hotmail.com, if you have questions. Please share this with everybody.